Defying the Odds
by SandyXX
Summary: This is the story of 16 year old Priya Carmichael. Let's just say when this spirited non-career from district 4 is reaped, things in the capital will never be the same…
1. A Reaping to Start

**Welcome to Defying the Odds!**

**My name is Sandy if you couldn't tell...yes just like the hurricane...I won't destroy your houses though I promise!**

_**Enjoy the story and please follow and review!**_

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_"The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our separate ways, I to die, and you to live. Which of these two is better only God knows."_

- Socrates

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Priya Carmichael POV District 4 Female

I sit by my father's large fishing boat and take a deep breath savoring the familiar salty air. I love the ocean, everything about it, even the occasional rotten smell of dead fish. Well okay I don't _love_ that exactly I'll admit.

I look around at my view of the docks, one of my favorite places in district 4. The day is lovely with a vibrant sapphire sky and perfect random patches of clouds that hold a faint golden glow. So many boats of different sizes and shapes rest among the dozens of long wooden docks; most are used for fishing in some way. Some of them are abandoned at the moment, and some are really busy as fishermen crowd around unloading their catches. Plenty of people walk by me without a second glance; stray fishermen, dock hands and higher ranking officials.

I practically grew up on a boat because my father is one of the major fishing captains in district 4. He is in charge of the deep sea fishing exhibitions and making sure all the crew gets home safely. It is a big job and he is one of the most respected in the fishing industry here for being kind and hardworking yet not tolerating any of his men acting stupid, rash or slacking off. As you might imagine he is often gone on these trips for days and weeks at a time. I hate when he is as we are really close and I miss him dearly. I always worry that something bad will happen to him out at sea and I will never see him again. It happens all too often here in 4.

That is the only thing I don't like about the sea, that it can be dangerous and claim lives.

I look further down to the beach past the docks, where many kids and families are relaxing and swimming in the summer sun. Everyone is just going about their normal day, as if they haven't a care in the world. But I know better. If only things were really that simple. I can hear the sounds from the main street market of district 4 that is close by, only a couple blocks away from the docks. It is no doubt unusually busy today as tomorrow it will be closed all day.

"ARRG"

"Bring it here!"

"Careful now, carefully!"

"Watch your step, Ryans!"

I look at the sudden commotion and see several fisherman only a couple boats down bringing in a huge shark still caught in a net. I can tell right away it is a great white shark and is still alive. We don't catch that many sharks and when we do there is always a huge crowd at the market waiting for it's meat. No doubt they are hurrying to get it ready to sell today or else they will have to wait two days and by then it won't be fresh, which brings the price down. I stand up to get a better look and watch from the outskirts as they rip it open right on the dock. The horrible smell is overwhelming at first and the sight of it's bright red mulchy innards splashing on the dock makes me sort of queasy. None the less you get used to seeing this sort of thing when you hang out at the docks as much as I do.

You see when I was little my dad would take me out on the sea all the time and being quite the little monkey when I was a kid I climbed all over the boat. When I got older he started letting me help with the boats, climbing masts and fixing the sails and whatnot. This became more than a hobby for me and eventually it became more like an after school job helping at the docks every day. I am lean and agile and can climb easily, something the fishermen have trouble with so I help them with repairing boats. It works out well as I am more at home working with the fisherman and listening to tales from their many voyages than I am hanging with my peers. I also learn responsibility and all that and even make a little of my own money. Not that I need to as my father's high position ensures we have a comfortable life.

Don't get me wrong we are not super rich like the mayor or anything like that, but we never have to worry about food or not having necessities.

I can see one of the young fishermen I know watching me so I call, "That's quite a catch Matt, I don't think we have had a Great White for at least a month!"

He smiles, "I know girl! Did ya see the thing try to take a bite out of me just now? Almost tore my damn arm off!"

I laugh as I notice a couple others spotting me and some looking annoyed. Some of these men don't appreciate a teenage girl helping and hanging around the dock, and see me as a silly nuisance interfering with "men's work". I just ignore them though and talk to the plenty that do like me, like Matt. He is about 20 and is one of the guys my father helped out. Several months ago there was this huge hurricane and one of the ships was lost at sea before they could make it back. It was one of the worst disasters we have had in my lifetime. Anyway Matt's father and brother were killed leaving Matt as the sole caretaker of his two younger sisters so my dad invited them over for dinner and offered him a job and gave them a bunch of food to take home. Since then we are always friendly and chat if we see each other around.

"Well be more careful then" I say smirking slightly in a teasing manner.

"Come on enough talking to the ladies," snaps another of the fishermen, named Jack, spitting out the word _ladies_. Remember when I said some of them don't appreciate me? Well he is one of those types. I scowl at him. As if we were actually flirting or anything.

"Why don't you go home little girl, wouldn't want you to get hurt around here" he says as if I was a little child.

"I have every right to be here you know" I tell him firmly, "I am not doing anything wrong, just making conversation. And I can handle being on a dock without doing something stupid just because I am a girl." One thing you learn quickly at the docks is that fishermen are not subtle people, they are often crude, brash and vulgar so you need to be able to handle yourself. Which I can. Most girls can't but I know that once you get through the rough exterior many of them are decent people with fascinating tales and experiences they are happy to share.

I should actually be going home as my father should be coming back from a fishing trip in about an hour so I say goodbye to Matt and a couple other guys I know. Our house is not too far from the docks so it doesn't take me long to get home. When I walk in I see my mother making a cheese and potato casserole for dinner, one of my father's favorite meals. It smells so delicious it makes my mouth water.

"Hey sweetie, how was your day" she calls.

"It was fine as always" I call back rolling my eyes as she always asks that and I always respond the same. It is almost like a running script between us.

I go upstairs to my bedroom and find my little 6 year old sister Sky bouncing on my bed.

"What are you doing Sky?" I chide her.

"Waiting for you! Daddy comes back today you know!" she shouts excitedly jumping up and down.

"Yes I know that, now stop jumping" I say as I grab her before she bounces off.

"Okay see ya" she shrieks as she runs out. Rolling my eyes again I close my door to avoid any further interruption by the lovingly insufferable 6 year old.

Later I go downstairs as my father walks in.

"Hey daddy!" Sky shouts running to him. I am not far behind and we both give him a big hug.

"Aww I missed you all so much, I am so glad to be back and have you lovely girls for company rather than a bunch of smelly fishy men" he says laughing. He kisses my mom and we all eat dinner, glad to be back together. Soon my thoughts turn to the reaping tomorrow. Oh yeah the reaping…

You see our government happens to think that brutally murdering our countries children is necessary in order to keep the country from falling apart. Or something like that. The point is we have the hunger games, so at the reaping they choose the poor kids who have to fight to the death on live TV. Yeah it sounds like fun right?

Well you could fool most of the kids in the district as we are considered a career district which means many kids train their whole lives in hopes of volunteering for it one day. That's right I know, people actually _volunteer_ to go to this thing! I can hardly believe it either. Anyway I try to not think about the games, which is hard to do the night before I could be called to my death. Unlike most of my oh so lovely peers I have not stepped foot in the training center. My parents despise the games and don't want me anywhere near it. I don't understand how any parent could.

I fall into an uneasy sleep filled with dreams of 12 year olds having their heads cut off.

That was a common sight in the last games, where two-count them two! little 12 year olds were gruesomely beheaded.

What the fuck is wrong with this country?

* * *

When I wake up it is 6 in the morning. I get ready for a morning workout. I find running on the beach to be relaxing and peaceful, especially on reaping day.

I change into a sleek black 1 piece bathing suit, running shorts and a loose white t shirt. I study my reflection in the mirror of the bathroom as I pull my long dark chocolate brown locks in a ponytail. I have a thin pretty face, nicely tanned skin, dark-almost black-eyes and a lean athletic figure from running and swimming every day. I silently creep out the backdoor and take off into a fast run.

I love running; I am fast and have great endurance. It is still dark out but the sun is starting to creep over the horizon. There is nobody out this early, which makes the early morning my favorite time of day. There is nobody to get in my way and it feels like the world is all for me waiting to be discovered. I near the beach and my feet start hitting the sand. It takes a few minutes of hard effort trudging through the thick sand before I get to the wetter compact sand at the shore. I start running to the left along the ocean, basking in this surreal magical atmosphere around me.

I run for about 30 minutes, watching the sun slowly rise as I do. I get to my usual resting place, a series of rural caves and rocks in a discreet area of the coast. You see fisherman like to tell stories and legends and this part of the coast is supposed to be haunted or cursed or whatever. Now don't get me wrong I love to listen to their tales and stories but I know when to not believe in them. I am not that gullible after all.

Basically it just means I have it all to myself, which is how I prefer it. I sit against the rocks letting my breathing normalize for a few minutes. Then I take my shoes, shorts and shirt off and dive in the ocean. The water is very cold, too cold for most people to enjoy. I am not most people however and find it exhilarating and refreshing. I relax and just float around for a while trying to enjoy what could be my last time in the ocean.

I get out and sit on the rocks drying off for a bit before finding my secret stash of knives that I have hidden here. I practice throwing them as I have for years. I am quite an expert at it by now. Now I know what you are thinking, I said I did not train right so why am I practicing throwing knives?

Well my parents say that any parent who does not teach their child something to survive in the games is neglectful. Not that they know of my stash of knives, but they know I know how to throw them. Long story short I am prepared if god forbid I have to go to the games. I will not be thrown in like a sitting duck with no way of defending myself. I don't get why more districts don't do more to prepare. I mean I know the games are awful and they prefer to ignore the possibility hoping it doesn't happen to them but come on the games will not be ending anytime soon so they should make sure their kids have a fighting chance at least.

I put my knives back and put my shorts on. I run barefoot on the beach carrying my shirt and shoes. It is getting to be late morning by now so I cut across the fish market to my house to get back in time for breakfast. I open the door and put my shoes away. My family is in the kitchen, my mother making breakfast, my father reading the paper drinking coffee and Sky coloring on a piece of paper on the floor.

"Where have you been" asks my father looking at me wearing only my bathing suit and shorts.

"The beach" I tell him.

"Well you're just in time for breakfast" my mother says, "so put your shirt on."

I do and sit down as she serves pancakes, fresh fruit and toast. We usually only have pancakes on reaping day.

"Are you nervous" my father asks and my stomach lurches.

"No, some career will volunteer anyway if I am called" I assure him. This rationalization does not stop any of us from worrying though.

After we finish eating my father says, "Hey Pri better hurry up and get ready".

So I go upstairs and shower, as I am sticky and sweaty from my workout. I decide on a strapless light blue dress that falls just above my knees and flip flops. The dress is not tight or "sexy" but light, comfy and beachy. That pretty much describes my whole wardrobe; comfy, beachy and athletic. Sky comes in singing "priya priya you look so pretty" as she sees me and dances around the room. I look at her, with her pale skin, dark curls and huge brown eyes. She is adorable and as my only sibling I love her more than anything despite how annoying she can be at times.

"Look what I made!" she says shoving a piece of paper at me. I take it and see she drew a picture of us together.

"It's for the reaping!" she exclaims proudly.

"Aww that's really good Sky," I tell her forcing a smile at her. She is much too young to be aware of the true horror of the day and enjoys all of the attention and hoopla it brings. I comb through my dark wet tangles and we head downstairs.

My mom gives me a long hug as she does before we leave for every reaping.

"What happens if you go?" asks Sky as we head down the road.

"Well I would have to go to the capital and be a tribute in the Hunger Games" I answer her.

"Where all the kids try and kill each other?" she gasps loudly in alarm. She must remember flashes from the games last year. I can see some other people staring at us.

"Shush both of you, now is not the time" my father says sternly.

When we reach the town square where the reaping is held I say good bye to my family and get in line with the rest of the eligible kids to sign in. After I get my finger pricked I stand in line with the rest of the 16 year old girls. Standing on the stage is our escort from the capital, a ridiculous woman named Sashira. She wears a ridiculous aqua pant suit and has long died dark blue hair with several seagull feathers in it. She has an assortment of tattoos that seem to be ocean themed.

"Welcome district 4 to the annual reaping ceremony!" she shouts gleefully as if it was a celebration instead of a ceremony choosing two kids to die. After they play the annual video that reminds us exactly why the districts deserve to have 24 of their kids murdered each year, she moves to pick the girls name.

_Please don't be me...please don't be me..._

"Our female tribute is …..Priya Carmichael!" she says beaming.

My heart seems to drop to the floor and I can't breathe or move. It's me. I am going to die.

Then I remember that it's okay because someone will volunteer. No one does yet which is odd.

I can feel everyone staring at me and my face seems to burn.

Then I see peacekeepers starting to walk towards me. I have seen many kids dragged kicking and screaming by the peacekeepers at the reapings over the years.

I knew I could never act so pitiful. Those kids lost their lives right there.

I quickly lift my head up and calmly walk to the stage. I snub and dodge the peacekeepers, rushing in front of them before they can grab or drag me. I can walk by myself thanks.

"Great" Sashira says smiling as she studies me. I hate the way is studying me, seeing how good of a murderer I will be. I probably look like I have trained for the games with my lean body; and I guess I have-but not to kill, only to protect and defend myself. She is way too happy to be sending me to my death; it makes me sick and I glare at her. I smirk slightly as her smile falters and she faces the crowd again.

"Any volunteers?" she asks. Please come on, someone volunteer. No one does. Fan-fucking-tastic.

"Okay then on to the boys!"

I stare at the ocean and sky longingly one last time with anger and defiance, wishing I could just float away from here. I force myself to look in my parent's direction now and then wish I hadn't. My mother and Sky are in tears and my father looks like he wants to murder Sashira. Fine by me. He catches my eye and looks so sad I have to look away before I start crying.

"Cam Sheenan!" she shouts as if announcing a prize instead of the name of a child sentenced to death.

I see him; a 16 year old with messy black hair slowly makes his way to the stage.

"Any volunteers?"

Again no one does

We shake hands. I catch his eye and we exchange a glance that says _what the fuck did we do to deserve this?_

What is going on, why does suddenly no one want to volunteer? That was what I had counted on!

Maybe it is because of what happened last year to our tributes. The boy was brutally tortured and eventually disemboweled and decapitated by the boy from district one, and the girl – well I don't really want to think about that again.


	2. Saying the Goodbyes

**Saying the Goodbyes**

The Justice Building

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_"Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting." _

-Peter Pan

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I sit in the fancy schmancy room in the justice building, trying to make sense of my new fate.

I will be dying in the hunger games. I know it. I can't kill innocent kids in cold blood. As my dad says no one decent ever wins.

"Noooooooooooooooooo you can't go!" Sky wails as my family comes in. She jumps on my lap flinging her little arms around my neck and burying her head in my hair.

"I'm sorry sky, I don't have a choice" I tell her.

My mother comes over with eyes full of tears, "Oh priya I love you so much, I'm so sorry, please win".

"It's not your fault" I tell her hugging her. We all settle in a group hug in silence until the peace keepers come.

Sky hands me a necklace she made in school the other day. It is on a black cord and has a thin piece of smooth blue iridescent glass or something. It sparkles and makes me smile at how excited she was to bring it home. She had refused to take it off for even a second. "Thanks" I tell her.

"When will you come back" Sky asks desperately. I look at her and can't force myself to lie, "I might not come back." She explodes into tears and digs herself into me. "You have to come back!" she cries.

"I'll try okay, you gotta go now Sky, I love you!" I tell her as my mother tries to get her off. The peacekeepers drag them out of the room.

I look at my father and wonder if it's the last time I will ever see him.

"Come back to us okay, no matter what happens hold your head up high and don't forget who you are Priya" my father whispers as the peacekeepers come back to take him away. And with that he is gone and I am all alone.

The door opens again and Horace comes in. He is the man in charge of maintaining the fishing boats who I work with every day at the docks and has become almost like a mentor to me.

"I'm sorry kid" he tells me in his old gruff fisherman drawl, "I know you can give 'em all a run for their money eh?"

"I suppose" I say then adding rather sarcastically, "I guess you'll have to do without my super fantastical climbing abilities now huh". He laughs but sees through my charade.

"Just get back, you hear? I won't take no for an answer," He says staring at me.

"I'll try," I say. "No, you will. I knew your old man for a long time and you're just like him so I know you've got a spirit and strength which is worth more than any weapon or training ever could be. You are tough, determined and can throw knives like there's no tomorrow," he finishes in a hurry.

"Thanks, make sure he doesn't take it too hard okay?" I tell him as peacekeepers come.

"Don't worry, just be smart and don't do something stupid kid, you'll be back before you know it!" he says as he leaves.


	3. Train Ride to Hell

**Train Ride to Hell**

Journey to the Capital

* * *

_"Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. _

_The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day."_

_-Dalai Lama_

* * *

I enter the room to find Cam sitting on a couch by the window. He looks friendly enough so I sit across from him.

"Hi I'm Priya" I say. He looks at me and smiles sadly saying, "I'm Cam"

"Yeah I think I've seen you around school before" I say. I get a good look at him. He is the same age as me, a little taller but not physically imposing or muscular but not frail by any means. He seems pretty average, not a career or weakling. Most of all he looks like a kind person with a sweet boyish face, messy black hair and wide blue eyes.

"Are you from the academy?" he asks looking at me and I reply no. "You're not either" I ask. He shakes his head. We sit in silence for a while watching the scenery go by.

"I like your hair, it's really pretty" he says after a while.

"Oh right" I say vaguely absentmindedly running my finger through my locks.

"I'm sure it will be when its covered in blood when I lie on the ground bleeding to death with a spear in my stomach or something" I burst out half crying half laughing without thinking. My emotions are really starting to get the better of me. Get a grip on yourself!

I notice the silence. I look up to see cam staring at me looking stunned.

Well this is just wonderful, he seemed nice and now he probably thinks I'm insane.

So yep great going, I already freaked out and scared off a potential ally.

"Sorry, I don't know why I said that" I mumble looking out the window.

"Well at least you would look better than me with an arrow sticking out of my head or something" he replies cheekily and I can't help but laugh at the morbidity of our conversation.

"Well maybe we will be lucky and our faces will be untouched at least," I say, "or you never know it could be a mace to the face" I add with a shudder.

For a while we sit there laughing crazily with thinking of the exact scenario of our impending doom. It is easy and somewhat comforting to talk with Cam knowing we both face the same horrible fate. Nervously joking about it with him almost makes it seem less scary somehow.

"As long as it's quick" he says grimly. "I just hope I don't get eaten by mutts" I say with such sadness in my voice that it surprises me.

"Yeah well anything to put on a good show" he looks at me, "that's all it is right…a show" he says angrily. None of us can speak for a while. We both know it is anything but.

"Hey enough of this morbid conversation!" calls a voice interrupting us. We look to see Sashira and our two mentors Finnick and Mags come in.

"Hey guys" Finnick says sitting down. "I'm Finnick and this is Mags". Of course we all know who he is.

"Priya and Cam" he says nodding at us in turn, "what are your strengths?" Cam and I look at each other in uncertainty. None of us want to talk first.

"Umm well I can throw knives and spears pretty well and am fast and can climb" I say.

"Good, and you?" Finnick asks Cam.

"I can throw spears and tridents and use a sword" he says.

He looks at us, "and neither of you trained at all?" We both shake our heads.

"Okay I figured that might be since you didn't volunteer, are you planning to join the careers though because they won't let you in if you are not impressive in training?"

"I'm not being in the careers" I tell him firmly as my mind is made up. If I am going to die I will not spend my last days hanging with a bunch of bloodthirsty murderous teenagers hunting down innocent kids and pretend to be one of them. I already doubt my ability to kill and know that I will be expected and forced to if I join them. Countless times I have seen them threaten to kill reluctant careers if they don't murder and I don't fancy being forced into that situation. I want nothing to do with it. To my slight surprise cam agrees.

"You are planning to be allies though?" he asks seeing our friendly manner. Me and cam look at each other and confirm silently. "Yes" he says.

"Okay tomorrow you will arrive in the morning in the capital, you will be prepped for the chariot rides that evening, it is the first time potential sponsors will see you so it is crucial to make a good impression" he hurries on, "but for now just relax and dinner will be in an hour."

When we are shown to our rooms I couldn't help but be impressed. It was large and bright, and filled with fancy ornate wood furniture that gleamed in the sunlight. Pretty purple curtains with gold embroidery matches the bed. A large comfy looking chair rests in a corner. The large closet was filled with luxurious fabrics that looked like they were a perfect fit for me. Plenty of makeup and beauty products as well as hair accessories adorned the shiny luxurious marble bathroom.

I couldn't help but feel a sense of fury at all this stuff. Why would they waste so much money on kids who will be dead shortly instead of something useful? Oh right cause they don't give a crap, that's why.

District 4 was one of the better districts but I still saw many hardships such as the few homeless people, cases of scurvy and other illnesses that could easily be cured, the poverty and starvation in the small poor section of 4 and how taxes on fishing could be raised on cue causing hardships for almost everyone. I also know that they are relentlessly guarding the ocean for anyone trying to escape Panem that way.

I remember one night a couple months ago when I was walking home from the beach after dark. I saw these two kids who were brothers, one looked about mid-teens and the other could not have been more than 10. It was clear they were starving. The older boy stole an apple off a nearby stand and peacekeepers came and just shot him in the head. I still remember the young kid's cries as he ran away. They murdered a starving boy who just wanted to fill his stomach and his little brothers. That was the first time I remember really being shocked at how cruel the government was.

A few days later I was sitting in the park and saw the same little boy. He had been living in the park I think. I had some food so went and gave it to him. I asked my parents about it later and they were upset but told me to forget about it because there was nothing I could do and it was best not to get involved. I knew most of the other districts seemed a lot worse off than us just from seeing the reaping's every year. The outer districts especially seemed very grim and dismal; the kids looked starving with their thin bodies and the hollowness in their eyes.

Then came a knock on the door, it was Finnick calling me to dinner. I changed out of my reaping dress and into a pair of comfy black sweatpants and a loose green t shirt I found in the dresser. When I entered the dining room I saw a huge mound of delicious food. Again my thoughts returned to those other districts where everyone was starved. How could the capital let them all starve if they had so much food? What the fuck was wrong with them? After dinner we all sat around a large TV to watch the recap of the reapings.

The district one tributes were typical careers. The girl was named Satin Rose and she was beautiful with long silky black hair, porcelain skin and vivid green eyes. She was tall and luscious, and smiled seductively the whole time. The male was named Gemcity Night and he was tall and strong with dirty blonde hair and playful eyes. He was rather handsome.

The district two tributes were even worse; the only world to describe them was lethal. The girl, Aurora Spring had light brown hair and walked smugly up to the stage after bellowing "I volunteer". She was full of confidence and had a murderous glint in her eyes. The boy, or man more like it was named Fusion Blake and he was huge and strong and must be the favorite so far. He had dark hair and tanned skin, and would have been very handsome had his obvious arrogant demeanor not ruined it. He strutted to the stage and said "I am Fusion Blake and I will kill every last tribute until I am the victor" and grinned cockily in a way that would get him tons of sponsors. I vaguely wondered if he would be my murderer. That thought was not pleasant.

District three was something of a relief after the careers. The girl, named Ampere Current was about 15, small and mousy with black hair. Something in her eyes told me not to underestimate her though. They boy was named Hertz and was small and had brown hair. He looked pretty shocked coming from the 14 year old section.

Then it was our turn, they call my name and I walk out looking calm and determined. I snubly duck around the peacekeepers which makes everyone in the room giggle. The announcers call me feisty and admire my exotic look and toned body and I glare at Sashira. Then they call Cam and we shake hands as the announcers are remarking on how surprising it is we had no volunteers this year.

The district 5 tributes are named Tesla and Atom and both have red hair and are around mid-teens. They don't look like that big of threats and neither does the pair from 6; a 15 year old named Lyra Cummings with brown hair and a lanky 16 year old named Jus Jippers.

A little 12 year is reaped in district 7, along with a muscular 18 year old. The girl is named Melody Channing and she has black hair and blue eyes and just seeing her makes my heart lurch. How in the world could I ever kill her?

Then as if it couldn't get any more tragic, district 8 has a pair of siblings! Siblings! Raiden and Aspen Shield. Poor kids.

9 has an interesting pair too. The girl, Nova is 13 and is tiny and looks like a ghost with pale skin and long blonde hair. She looks almost like she could float through air she is so wispy looking. Her eyes have a vague distant look. The boy, Rueben Tahara is a suave and smooth looking 17 year old. He looks like he could sneak around and slit your throat before you could blink. He is rather dark and handsome.

District 10 is Calla and Zion. They look dangerous. Calla is another 12 year old with dark brown hair; however her eyes seem to glint maliciously and I make a note not to trust her. The boy Zion is fairly big and muscular, almost like a career. He also has this awful glint in his eye that makes me think he might be unstable or something. He is just _off_.

The 11 pair are skinny and dark skinned, named Bryony and Piper. Bryony is 15 and I can hear a lot of crying in the background when her name is called. Piper is only 13 and is tiny and dark haired. He looks terrified, poor thing.

12 has a pretty blonde 16 year old named Zari Holden who is the mayors daughter, and another 16 year old named Reed with dark hair, grey eyes and olive skin who volunteered for his brother.

Watching the reaping's makes it feel impossible for me to win. Seeing them all knowing they will all have to die for me to go home, and I will have to go against the likes of Aurora and Fusion.

_Oh well don't think about it. It's not worth thinking about. It will just make it worse and much harder later._

Ugh I really need to learn to not care so much or my emotions will be the end of me. As long as I don't lose it I stand a chance so I need to be emotionally strong, and not let myself go crazy or fall apart no matter what happens. That is what kills a lot of tributes, letting their emotions get the best of them. That needs to be my strength, to not let anything get to me and remain in control so I don't act rash and stupid.

My parents did always say that I am very mature for my age. Hopefully that will help me handle what's to come. If not I can kiss my life goodbye.

I go back to my room after watching the recaps. I wonder how my parents are dealing with it right now, hopefully they will be okay. And poor Sky who doesn't really understand it that well, I really hope she doesn't watch when I get killed in the arena. Assuming I die in the games she is not really going to remember me when she grows up, she is only 6 after all. Halfway to reaping age. This disturbs me more than anything else about getting reaped. I hate this feeling of being so powerless. In fact I feel like I am being downright kidnapped, which is exactly what it is. I throw a pillow across the room in frustration. It lands on the table and knocks down a lamp onto the floor. Oh yeah handling my emotions is going so well already, aren't you proud? Oh well might as well get it out now before we get the capital.

The capital, I wonder what it is like? This place where people think watching kids murdering each other is fun, where people do insane and crazy things to their body just because they are what? Bored? Is that it? Are their lives really so empty that they have to resort to completely dying their skin and whatever the hell else it is they do to themselves? I am glad at least that I am not so shallow and ridiculous to think those hideous alterations make me somehow superior. Oh yeah "I look like a crayon! I have horns and feathers and fur! Aren't you so jealous!"

And they are supposed to the embodiment of class and refinement? Why can't they just leave us alone?

Oh well I need to decide my strategy. Being from 4 I won't fly under the radar, and I didn't look like a weakling at the reaping. I do kinda look like a career I guess, minus the "I've trained my whole life to kill you bitch!" look. The others will probably think I am intimidating and confident based on the reaping and my toned body. Not to mention I can throw knives and spears with any career.

Ugh I really don't like thinking of playing angles and pretending to be someone I am not. I do not want to play the games at all. Crap this sucks. I have no choice so I better just suck it up.

I at least have Cam for an ally so I won't need to worry about being alone or trying to find allies to trust. So what try to be confident and intimidating yet not with the careers? In fact the careers will only have 4 people! Well I am sure they will have to add some others but 2 less trained killers with them is good news for us. Maybe it will not be so bad after all. Maybe I can win.

Well okay so how should I play it? The careers are going to be pissed at us for declining so we for sure won't fly under their radar, no doubt we will be one of their first targets. Unless we pretend to agree then run off with supplies as soon as the bloodbath starts. Would that be better than just declining? They would be even more pissed if we betrayed them like that but we would get past the bloodbath. Ugh it is all just a big gamble isn't it? The gamble of our lives…


	4. Welcome to Paradise

**Welcome to Paradise**

Day 1 in the Capital**  
**

The Arrival and Chariot Rides

* * *

_"Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other."_

-Erma Bombeck

* * *

When I wake up in the morning it takes me a moment to remember why I am sleeping on a speeding train and not in my bed. Then it all comes crashing back and I feel like my stomach is slowly being twisted into knots.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Priya get up! You need to get ready to arrive in the capital!" Sashira shouts. I groan and continue lying down. "Are you up?" she shouts again while banging on the door. I put the pillow over my head and it muffles her voice somewhat. I can still hear her banging so I figure I might as well get up if I can't get any peace.

"Okay" I shout back and head into the dining room. I see Cam sitting at the table having a splendid looking breakfast with everything a person could ever want. There is toast, scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, pancakes, cereals, muffins and a bunch of other things I don't know the name of.

I grab a chocolate chip muffin and quickly make a bowl of cereal. There are pitchers of an orange liquid I know to be orange juice, a treat that my parents sometimes get. While we eat Finnick comes in and starts to get his food and sits down with us. Once we are all done they get down to business. "Okay you two, soon you will be with your prep teams and stylists. You will not like what they do but do not resist" he orders us and we nod. "Now hurry up and get ready! We don't have much time! Make yourselves presentable" Sashira tells us so we go back our rooms.

I look through the closet and eventually put on a pair of dark jeans and a delicate cream colored blouse that looks good against my tan skin. It is pretty chilly though so I pick out a faded green denim jacket with cute buttons on the front. Then Cam is in my room.

"Come on, Sashira says we are about to arrive" he says so I run a brush through my hair and follow him to the main sitting area on the train.

"Okay guys, go over to the window and wave to the crowds when we get there" Finnick says as the windows go dark as we pass through a tunnel.

Then we can see the capital come into view. Dozens and dozens of huge shining skyscrapers rise into the sky like mountains. The buildings are all quite odd and eccentric, built in every color shape and form. We can see all the people lining the streets that scream and shout at us. They are the oddest group of people I have ever seen. Their skin and hair and eyes are dyed every color imaginable; pink, blue, yellow, gray, purple, green, red, white, orange and all sorts of combinations. I even see one person who has green and blue polka dotted skin! I see many with all sorts of tattoos and jewels embedded in their skin. There are antlers, horns, feathers, wings, shark fins, bird beaks and feet, cat ears, whiskers, tails, scales, webbed skin and god only knows what else. I stop looking closely because quite honestly it really freaks me out and I really don't want to know what the hell else these people do to themselves.

I really don't want to wave but we need to so I put on a very sarcastic and scornful expression and wave slowly to them like I am making fun of them, which I am. They don't seem to notice however and think I am being 100% genuine in my joy of being here. Cam is waving but not very enthusiastically. We are quickly ushered along into the remake center, away from the frightening and intrusive crowd who is eager for a look at the kids they will soon see viciously murdered for their entertainment.

Cam and I are led into different rooms; mine with a sign saying D4F on the door. As soon as I open the door three people are waiting for me. They are obviously capitalites. One woman who looks to be in her mid-20s has long curly light purple hair and unnaturally dark eyes. She has had some matching purple gems implanted on the side of her eyes as well.

"I'm Violett" she says in an obnoxiously high squeaky voice.

"I'm Oren" says a man who also looks mid-20s. He is tall and has tanned skin and bleached white spiky hair and a spiky dog collar around his neck. I notice he has dragon tattoos along his arm.

"And I'm Rayne" says the last woman. She has pale skin that seems to be glowing of its accord, with long black hair that is tinted blue and unnatural electric blue eyes.

"We are your prep team priya!" gushes Violett, "we will make you look so beautiful everyone will have to sponsor you!"

"Oh" is all I can say.

"You are already so gorgeous we won't even have to do much of anything to make you shine!" adds Oren. "Yes" agrees Rayne, "you look so exotic for district 4, I love that long dark hair and pretty eyes!"

"Thanks" I say.

"We are so lucky to have you!" finishes Violett enthusiastically.

They make me take off all my clothes so I am completely and utterly naked. They spin around me taking measurements and such. It is not quite as bad as you would think; being from district 4 spending a lot of time in swimsuits and having a nice slim athletic body with people gushing at how beautiful you are will do that to you. Anyways these people do not seem very _human _so it is more like just being naked in front of your pet. Good god did I really just compare these people to pets? Ugh I am getting sick just being here.

They continue to chatter and I just ignore them as they work on me. This includes bathing me in several substances, painfully rubbing my skin until it is sore and red, using some soothing lotion to make my skin smooth and glowing, waxing off all my hair except on my head and eyebrows, polishing and buffing my nails, doing makeup, and lastly; washing, blow drying and curling my long dark hair until it is glossy and soft.

"Okay now time to get Apollo!" they screech finally.

They leave the room and I am left alone naked. I wish they had left me a robe or something. The door opens again and a man enters who can only be my stylist Apollo. He is fairly young, maybe in his 30s. He is Asian and has fair skin with black hair and eyes. Unlike most capitalites he does not appear to have any enhancements. He is wearing mint green eye liner that works for him.

"Hello Priya, forgive me for a moment" and he walks around me looking at every inch of my bare body. He then hands me a robe and I put it on.

"Okay let's talk, I am your stylist Apollo" he starts. "I figured that" I say with a smile.

He laughs, "I am here to help you make an impression that will get the most sponsors." He has a rather calming aura and I am now much more relaxed than I was a minute ago. "I am here to help you in any way I can okay" I nod.

"Tonight is the chariot parade of course; I will get your costume in a minute. You have quite an unusual look for 4 but in a great way, very exotic," he says.

He leaves and comes back in a moment later. "I am guessing you are wondering what your costume is?"

"Some mermaid or sea theme" I guess.

"What else with 4? but I plan to make it stand more than usual, close your eyes"

I do and he puts on some tight fitting dress. He then stencils something on my shoulder. Lastly he puts something in my hair. "Okay look" he says finally.

I am wearing a beautiful blue sequin mermaid cut dress that highlights my lean lithe body and hugs my slight curves. My skin is tan and glowing. My dark hair is glossy and falls in pretty loose curls down my back. My eyes are shining and glittering like jewels with a little light blue eye shadow on the side giving an exotic twist. A silver tiara and light blue flower Apollo says is called a Siberian Squill adorns my hair, giving a delightful and tropical contrast with my dark shiny hair. The best part is the black stenciling on my shoulder, with my tan skin and lean bony musculature it looks positively ethereal. I am like a glorious sea goddess come to life.

"Wow" I say, "this is amazing Apollo, thank you." "It's my job to help you make the best impression you can, not that I had to do much" he says modestly.

We get the stables where the chariots are held. I see several of the other tributes which makes me so nervous seeing them in person.

I find our chariot and cam is already waiting there. I get in the chariot and he looks at me and stares. "Wow, you look beautiful" he says sweetly. I find myself blushing in his gaze for some reason. Why am I blushing, I don't like him like that! I can't be that stupid and there is no future so we will be nothing except friend's maybe. Why am I feeling this way? I never felt that way before? I never paid much attention to boys, seeing how it made girls act so stupid and silly and shallow when they were dating. I especially despised the fake love some tributes pretend in the arena. It makes me sick to think of kids making such fools of themselves. I am for sure not acting in love in the arena, that is a big fat no how no way.

"Thanks, you look amazing too" I tell him and he does I admit. He is shirtless and his toned lightly muscled chest abs and shoulders are on full display. He is sprayed with a light gold polish that highlights his muscles. His hair is trimmed slightly and lightly tousled in a charmingly boyish way. He has a gold crown on his head and a gold trident prop that looks real. Yes it is just the exposing costume and the fact that he looks really good is why I blushed. Nothing more. I don't fall in love! _Just shut up already before you turn into one of those silly shallow girls who only think about boys, cause you are really starting to_. Oh god I do, don't I? Okay then no more thinking about my "feelings", luckily a good distraction comes along…

I can see the careers from 1 and 2 start heading down the line and my stomach lurches but I don't show it. Just keep your cool. Don't show them fear or let them intimidate you. That is one thing they can never take no matter what, I will never cower down to these idiots. It is hard to do that when faced with their piercing glares though. They look even scarier in person, especially Aurora and Fusion. I know exactly what they want and well they will not be happy when we decline the alliance. Imagine the careers losing 1/3 of their expected force? Yeah I would be pissed too if I were them. If I had trained my whole life to be nothing more than a cruel vicious killer who enjoys killing innocent children for glory, pride, fame and money, that is.

I nudge Cam and we exchange a glance that says _well here we go, no turning back now_. Luckily I would never reconsider my decision to not join them. I will never act like friends and live with them watching them hunt and murder up close. I refuse to. It is not like it would guarantee I would win anyway and I don't trust them one bit. Not even their pinky finger. I am sure our district is mad at us for not joining; well they will be as they are not aware of our refusal yet. I don't give a crap about their feelings on the matter. Cam and I are the ones here, no one else. It is me who would have to live with cold blooded killers and become one, not them. Yes it is completely my choice who I ally with. I am not going to let tradition decide that because I actually have a brain. They chose me so they get me for exactly who I am, and I am not a career so too bad for them. If they wanted a career then someone should have volunteered!

They come up and just stand there staring at us like the bozos they are.

"Yes" I ask after they don't say anything for a while.

"You in then?" Satin says rudely with a sniff. Geese how rude! Good thing I will not be around them 24/7 in the arena or else I would kill them from sheer annoyance. In fact I am so relieved to be able to get away from these awful and arrogant people once the games start.

"No thanks" I say trying to be as polite as I can. No sense making them madder than they have to be. They look so offended and mad it is almost funny. That is if they would not be trying to kill us with deadly weapons shortly. What have they seriously never heard the word no before? Can they not comprehend in their tiny twisted brains that someone actually might not _want_ to join them? That anyone would dare choose to resist them? The two girl Aurora walks up closer and all my instincts say to back away but I force myself to stand my ground and look coolly at her.

"You better reconsider or you're the first dead 4" she snarls glaring at me in the eye.

"Hmm okay…" I pretend to actually consider this, "still no! but thanks anyway." I say smiling innocently.

"We have no interest in joining you so just move along now" I continue coolly glaring back defiantly.

They stalk off like dogs with their tails between their legs. I smirk. Priya 1 careers 0. Cam and I don't feel like talking much after that. Eventually the careers come back to their chariots, making sure to give us death glares as they pass. Arrogant bastards.

Then it is time to start. The crowd is deafening. Apollo comes to the chariot and does something that causes bubbles to rise up from the back of the chariot. I also hear a sea hymn and everyone turns to stare at us. Now cam and I are smiling at each other. Chariots from 1 and 2 and then 3 are out and our chariot moves forward. The noise is deafening as the crowd goes ballistic when they see our chariot. I wish I could have covered my ears but I guess that would not exactly get much sponsors huh. Luckily we did not have to wave and blow kisses, or else I might have barfed. That would have been just fantastic. Our stylists told us not to smile, just look dignified and haughty like we are above it all. It works and the crowd loves the act. I can see on the cameras with our blue chariot with gold trimming we look like royalty majestically riding above the waves.

I hate this feeling of being paraded around trying to please them as everyone acts like they love us all. Umm hello? If you really cared even a smidgen for us you would not allow the games to happen, not be betting on us like racehorses. The whole thing is a farce. I feel like shouting that in all of their faces. Just shut up, _you will be cheering when we die! _Funnily enough the crowd looks more like a box of crayons than a crowd with all the skin dying. I can barely hold back a laugh at seeing them nothing more than crayons. I try to keep on a pleasant emotionless mask despite my thoughts. I hear people calling my name and they throw flowers at us. At one point Cam leans over and whispers "I think that guy has a crush on you" and nods at some ridiculous old creepy guy with no shirt waving his hands calling my name and shaking his body in a rather suggestive and inappropriate manner.

"What a creepo" I sing song back, "and I think you have an admirer" I say nodding at a lady who is wriggling her hands containing at least 5 inch nails and shouting Cam's name. He sees her and pretends to make retching noises and we both crack up and spend the rest of the time looking for the most ridiculous fans and whispering and giggling with each other. I actually end up having a blast in a way seeing how weird they are. Haha if only they knew we were making fun of them.

We can see the president on his balcony, watching the tributes coolly with his icy stare as if to show us that we don't mean a thing to him. I absolutely hate him. I despise him. I loathe him. I detest him. I abhor him. You get the idea? He makes me want to rip off my arm and bash him in the skull with it repeatedly. I want to throttle him and stab him viciously 529 times, the number of tributes he has murdered in the games since he became president. Then I want to strangle him and set him on fire. Then bring him back to life and disembowel him then cut off his head. Okay I might have some anger issues here by chance, but it is justified!

Maybe I'll shoot him with a gun, no that would be too quick and he deserves to suffer.

I would cut open his chest to see if he even has an organ where his heart should be. It almost seems impossible that he could you know? I want to wipe that cruel smirk off his face. He thinks he is so safe and above it all, that he can just play god with people's lives like they don't mean a thing.

The worst part is he can.

Most of all I want to put him in an arena.

I want to hear him scream like a little girl.

Yeah these are rather dark thoughts for a 16 year old huh. Oh but they are so satisfying!

Welcome to Panem.

As I see the president looking at us I glare at him with clear anger and defiance.

Now our kind, dear beloved president opens his mouth and begins to speak.

"Welcome tributes! We are proud to open the Games once again. We salute your courage and sacrifice! May the best among you emerge victorious! While it is unfortunate that some of you will die, the hunger games serve to bring our country together and they make us ever stronger and more united. Good luck and may the odds be in your favor!"

I can barely contain my blood boiling at the speech. Especially the part about the games bringing the country together, what a load of shitty lies and crap! They don't bring us together, the whole point is to tear us apart and make the districts hate each other after all so we don't dare rebel against the fine upstanding capital. Of course that is not even considering the kids that are _literally being torn apart_ by mutts and weapons! Or the family's torn apart physically and emotionally.

So I lean over and whisper to cam, "The games bring us together all right…for children's funerals."

We exchange a dark meaningful glance.

In my opinion the speech should have gone

"Welcome tributes! I am so glad to have the chance to murder and torture you all in the arena! Nothing makes me happier than killing district kids! I also drown puppies and cut up kittens for fun! We love that you have absolutely no fucking choice to be here and yet have to pretend that you are enjoying it while pathetically sucking up to us in hopes it can save your pathetic ass! I also can't wait to see which one of you I get to further continue to torture and own after the arena by threatening your family and selling your body to the highest bidder! Furthermore I am a power hungry bloodthirsty monster who is actually scared shitless at the very idea of a rebellion! It makes me cry like a little girl! The games are so delightfully perfect in manipulating everyone to do exactly as I want! While I don't really wish any of you luck, I need to pretend to act like a decent human being or else my stupid mindless capitalites might actually start thinking! No good can come of that! Well folks I am going to go now and get back to my business of cutting out peoples tongues, bombing my people, murdering our children, poisoning my rivals and slitting babies' throats! Good day!"

Oh yeah. That is much more realistic.


	5. Just a Night on the Fourth Floor

**Just a Night on the Fourth Floor**

Night 1 in the Capital

* * *

_"Government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery."_

-Jonathan Swift

* * *

After the chariot ride we all make our way back to the 4th floor of the training center. I immediately shower and wash off all the makeup and stenciling.

I am glad the parade is over; now all we have to look forward to is training to mindlessly kill innocent kids, trying to impress the cruel and horrible game makers that hold our lives in their hands as if we owe them and of course putting on a fake bogus act in the interviews to fool the brainwashed grotesque colorful freaks that want to watch us die into sponsoring us.

Oh and then we go into the arena.

Somehow the arena doesn't sound so bad now. I would rather just go in now than suffer through the next few days first. God I am becoming so narcissistic. Okay I love you capital! I love you president!

Nope, not working. Excuse me while I vomit.

Luckily it is time for dinner now so I have something to focus on besides the lovely situation we are in.

"Brilliant job Apollo and Justina!" Sashira exclaims, "They looked marvelous!"

Justina is cams stylist by the way if you couldn't tell. You could though right? I mean I would hate to be talking to an idiot or something who can't think for themself. Then all my fabulous sarcasm would be wasted!

"Thanks, they did great" Apollo says.

"You will get tons of sponsors!" Sashira finishes.

"I saw 1 and 2 come by, what happened?" Finnick asks.

"Well we told them we were not interested in joining them and they said we need to reconsider or be the first to die" I say rolling my eyes. As if they wouldn't kill me anyway.

Sashira gasps, "What do you mean of course you will join them your careers!"

"No actually we decided we don't want to be in the careers" Cam tells her.

"What you need to!" she says "it will help you!"

"Our decision is final" I say quietly yet firmly.

She huffs loudly, clearly mad about not having any careers this year. Sorry Sashira dear it is not about you. You're not the one who would have to pretend to be a cruel cold blooded killer and spend every day with those bloodthirsty nasty brutes.

Then a pretty avox woman brings in our drinks and when she hands me a glass of water I automatically say thanks.

Okay do you know what an avox is? If you don't consider yourself lucky. Well the capital, being the bastards that they are, decided it is a great idea and perfectly humane and okay to cut out peoples tongues and force them to be slaves.

These people are "traitors" and "criminals" they say. Really though it is anyone who does the smallest thing that they don't like. Like breathing the wrong way. Oh and by the way these people are not human anymore, because you know the capital can just decide that.

Either way this makes Sashira gasp and scold me saying "You don't talk to avoxes except to give orders!" So I silently fume. It is a crime to simply thank them! How treasonous!

All I know is I would rather be dead than be an avox. At least I will be free from this awful place then. Guess I will get my wish soon. I can't wait! Ugh.

We all sit down to watch the chariot parade recap together and I can't help but laugh over the commentators making such a big deal of me and Cam laughing together and ignoring everything else.

"My what kind of strategy is this? Could they be friends or something more? It seems like it doesn't it! How exciting! A pair of friends or lovers in the games! How will this impact the dynamics of the career pack do you think?" they gush.

Idiots. They are all idiots!

When I retire to my room after the recap I find the avox I thanked before in there cleaning the bathroom. She immediately makes to leave after seeing me but I catch her eye and give her a warm smile. She smiles back understanding all that I wanted to convey; _thanks for everything, I'm sorry for getting you in trouble before, I'm sorry the capital did this to you and are such cruel bastards._

She nods sadly at me and looks at me with pity in her eyes, as if silently saying _it is you who needs the pity_.

Yeah sure I will be dead in two weeks most likely, maybe even a few days. Like I said that seems infinitely better to me than having my tongue cut out and being a capital slave forever. I now feel bad about getting pity from a woman who is a silent slave and considered not human.

Then my mind turns to the first day of training tomorrow and my heart lurches. I am very anxious for it. It is really happening. I will be face to face with the other tributes I have to kill to come home. We all have to play the game. What if we don't? What if we refuse to kill each other? That will never happen. I need to stop thinking I can change anything. I can't. I need to concentrate on how I will survive. I will be dead or a murderer of innocent children. Its harsh yes, but its reality. At least I won't die pretending to be a career and that's all the rebellion I can do.

"_So yes by all means refuse to kill them, see how easily the other tributes kill you in the arena!_" a nasty voice whispers in my head.


	6. Training Showdown: Take One

**Training Showdown: Take One**

Day 2 in the Capital

Training Day 1

* * *

_"At times the world can seem an unfriendly and sinister place, but believe us when we say that there is much more good in it than bad._

_All you have to do is look hard enough. _

_And what might seem to be a series of unfortunate events may, in fact, be the first steps of a journey."_

- A Series of Unfortunate Events

* * *

It is the first day of training. Yippee. I can hardly wait.

Me and cam take the elevator down and enter the training room and wait for the instructor to start. Many of the tributes are already here, including the 4 careers who continue to stare at us. Something tells me this is going to be a long day.

The room is huge and filled with weapons and different stations. I see a pool, climbing wall and obstacle course. Weapons that I see include knives, daggers, spears, swords, axes, scythes, bows and arrows, throwing stars, maces, clubs, blowguns and I am sure others. The survival stations are fire starting, edible plants, snares and traps, knot tying, camouflage, shelter building, tracking, mutts and animals, skinning animals and healing.

Once all of the tributes have arrived the instructor starts running through all the stations.

"Spend your time wisely, build up your weaknesses and learn as much as you can. What you do now will be the difference between life and death for most of you so take advantage of this time. Do not ignore the survival skills. There is to be no fighting between tributes until the arena. Good luck" she finishes.

Cam and I had decided to split up for the morning hours to scope out potential allies and learn the strengths and weaknesses of the other tributes. It is always crucial to know what everyone is capable of and what their best weapons and tactics are. Almost as important is fleshing out their personalities and mental status; that is finding out which tributes are dangerous, caring, nervous, secretive, trusting, smart, psychotic, gullible, idiotic and such.

Oh right we are free to train now. Whoops.

I look around trying to decide where to start. Everyone has already started moving off now. I see the careers, only the four of them obviously heading to the weapon racks. What else? They are so typical and predictable. I see Cam is off at the fire starting station talking with the boy from 7. The girl and boy from 3 at the trap and snares station and I decide to join them. I start walking and accidently run into the tall wiry boy from 6 with the spiky red hair.

His name is Adam or Atom or something I don't remember exactly. He sneers at me and says nastily, "Stay out of my way career!" and starts walking away.

How charming! Can't say I blame him though, everyone probably thinks I am a career so far as no one heard me tell them off yesterday.

I grin. Might as well tell them now. I grab his shoulder and pull him back forcibly.

"For your information I am not nor will ever be a career" I hiss glaring in his eyes and stalk off leaving him gaping at me in surprise.

I find the snares station and say hi to the girl and boy from 3. They look at me warily and the mousy black haired girl says "I'm Ampere and this is Hertz" indicating the small brown haired boy.

"I'm Priya" I say. The girl is working on a complicated snare using electricity which the instructor is watching enthusiastically.

"Wow that's really good, I could never make anything that complex" I tell her and she gives me a genuine smile. "It is not really that hard" she says and babbles on the technical aspects of it that I don't understand. The instructor then helps me by showing some basic snares to catch food, and some traps. I finally am able to construct one after 25 minutes at the station that would send a spear soaring straight at a tribute when they activate the tripwire. I am not sure about the pair from 3 as allies though; they seem pretty close and prefer to stick together. I know I need to stay clear of wherever they are in the arena as they are bound to set some horrifying deadly electrical traps.

I find myself watching the careers. Aurora is showing off some impressive knife throwing skills but I am just as good, while fusion blows dummies away with a sword. Satin and Gemcity seem to be flirting and not paying attention to anything else. The district 11 girl is climbing trees like a squirrel, she might even be better than me. I head to the edible plant station with the district 8 siblings, Aspen and Raiden. They both seem really sad and I can't imagine how awful it would be to have a sibling go in the games with you.

"Is this night lock?" Raiden is asking his sister who looks closely at the berry and replies, "no that's edible; you see how it does not have spots on the bottom." "Oh okay" he says. They look at me coldly as I sit down and start looking through the berries and not knowing many of them.

"Come on" Raiden says and they walk off but not before I hear him mutter, "We need to stay away from careers".

I am getting pretty frustrated by everyone thinking I am a blood thirsty career by now. Nobody wants to talk to me so I guess it might just be Cam and me. Maybe since I have not done anything worthwhile yet and they think I am with the careers. Ugh. I absentmindedly start putting the berries in piles of edible and not edible and am lost in my thoughts when a sweet little voice says "No that's night lock silly!"

I look up to see the little 12 year old from 7, Melody staring at me.

"Oh thanks" I say and put the berry in the not edible pile, "I don't think I'm cut out for berries." I get up looking around wanting to find something more productive to learn. I decide to try some weapons and head over to the archery station which is empty. I really need a break from trying to talk to the other tributes. I have never tried archery before so I fully expect it to be difficult. Once the instructor shows me the basic steps though I find I am pretty adept at it, or at least I can hit the target almost every time after a half hour.

I decide I have time for one more station before lunch and look around. I go to the knife throwing station which is empty except for the district nine girl, Nova. Now Finnick had told us to not show the others what we are capable of so I decide to make sure and hold back some. Oh look at me hiding my skills and putting on a front!

I figure I should at least show I am competent of course. It is very interesting to watch Nova. Mostly she seems to be lost in a daydream or something and only hits the outside of the target. Several times however she will seem to focus and hit the bull's-eye with surprising force and accuracy but it does not last for long and she will go back to her vacant expression. I wonder if she is playing an angle. She seems to be humming to herself too, quite the odd girl. I pick up a knife and throw it. It hits right in the middle between the bull's-eye and the end of the target. I throw another, a little closer to the bull's-eye. I smile and devise a tactic of not aiming for the bull's-eye so that I can practice correctly but to everyone else it will look like I am merely good but not hitting the bulls-eye.

I aim for the outermost ring on the bottom of the target, directly below the bulls-eye. Bingo it hits exactly. I stop myself from smirking and instead bit my lip slightly so people will think I am upset about missing. I then aim for the closest ring above the bulls-eye. It lands slightly to the left of where I wanted. I decide to throw one more, aiming for the space between the first and second rings closest to the bulls-eye. It hits there exactly.

"Oh that's too bad" a rude voice says. I see Aurora is back and staring at my target which for all intents and purposes shows someone with a lousy aim. Too bad she doesn't know the truth. I can't help but bite back my laughter; she is falling for it so easily! Priya 2 Careers 0.

I was about to respond with some amazingly awesome witty and epic comeback when the lunch bell so rudely interrupts me.

A few minutes later Cam and I are sitting at a table alone discussing what we learned so far. I can't help but feel the careers glaring at us now and I feel like I am under a spotlight but try to remain calm cool and collected. Not like glaring can hurt me anyway.

"Well the guy from 10 is strong and good using a sword, but seems like a loner and is off somehow. The girl from 11 is good at climbing and survival skills but not much else. Braxton, the guy from 7 seems nice enough and is great with an ax but I think he is going to help his district partner, the 12 year old," Cam is saying.

"Yeah I talked to her, she is good with berries and plants. The 3 tributes are adept at electric traps but I don't think they are interested in allies at all, steer clear of them in the arena with the traps. The 9 girl is quite odd but can throw knives pretty well," I add.

By the time we begin the afternoon sessions I am very frustrated in how things are going. I look around and see the pool for swimming. I notice the 12 girl Zari is there and struggling to swim.

"I'm gonna swim" I tell cam, "Relax and get some sanity." He laughs and heads for the spear station. I change in the small locker room provided and dive in the water gracefully. I swim expertly up to the girl Zari and ask, "Need some help?"

She looks at me shocked, "Why would you want to help me?"

I know right, a supposed career offering to help! Whatever will we do?

"Dunno maybe it just annoys me to see people who can't swim" I deadpan.

"Your district 4" she asks and I confirm, "Why aren't you a career?" Hmm good question there.

"Because I hate them," I answer. It's the simplest explanation.

"Really? Why?" she asks suspiciously.

"Do I need a reason to hate them?" I counter, "Isn't being careers enough?"

She smiles uncertainly, "I guess so." She seems to be unconvinced though. I then go over the basic strokes in order to be able to stay above water and propel forward and she gets the hang of it quickly.

Being in the water is pure bliss, easy and natural. I float and twist around with a silky grace to my movements. I go under and hold my breath for so long as to scare the trainers nearby, purely for my own entertainment. I mean come on, they just saw how good I am at swimming, and they were honestly worried I was going to drown? Idiots. I am going to die soon probably so excuse me for having some fun at their expense. I am sure they will be forever scarred for the remainder of their long rich happy stress free lives.

I decide to have some more fun and swim underwater and grab Zaris leg. She of course screeches and I come up grinning. Then she splashes me and it turns into a little splashing fight. We are both giggling and laughing and everyone is starring at us. Oh well. I hear her gasp and turn to see the careers heading directly for me.

"Last chance 4" Aurora says, "Join us or be the first to die in the bloodbath"

I just grin cheekily and say "I think I have made my intentions perfectly clear" and glide smoothly across the pool away from them. Priya 3 Careers 0. This is just getting embarrassing for them now.

"Wanna be allies" Zari asks. I smile and look at her.

"Well I am allies with my district partner Cam" I say pointing him out still at the spear station, "as long as he's okay with it."

We dry off and change and head over to the weapons, Cam is alone at the trident station now. I greet him just after he makes a great throw impaling a dummy.

"This is zari from 10, this is cam," I introduce them. I pick up a spear from the nearby station and the familiar weapon feels good in my hands. I throw it, not giving it my all and impale a dummy, but not as forcefully as Cam did. It hits through the stomach and I pull it out and move on to another dummy. I hit it on in the head from pretty far away and decide I might as well go all out with spears. It is not like it will fool anyone anyway me being from 4 of course I can throw a spear. Let them all think spears are my best weapon. Truthfully they are nowhere near as comfortable for me to throw as knives. I usually fish with them, not throw them. Not like knives which feel deadly and like an extension of my hand. Spears and tridents seem too big and clumsy at times.

After a couple of more expert throws I decide to try some new weapons. Cam is good with spears, tridents and swords. Zari learns to throw knives, which makes me jealous since I decided to do new weapons so no knives. I try my hand at different weapons. Axes and most swords are too heavy for me to like. A few smaller swords are okay though but nothing special. Soon enough they call the tributes over for the necessary obstacle and climbing sessions. Districts 1-6 start at the obstacle course and 7-12 at the climbing wall. After that we switch. The careers do well, easily navigating the obstacle course in a time just over 3 minutes. Then it is me and cams turn. I am flying easily along the course. I am naturally very fast and agile and with quick reflexes so it right up my alley. I duck and turn around the course and finish several steps ahead of Cam.

The instructor looks at me in confusion for a minute before saying, "2:53, the first person to run it in under 3 minutes that I recall."

The careers look murderous and livid and I smile sweetly at them. When the other two districts are done we move to the climbing course.

"Okay in order to make this more fun, pick someone to race against!" the instructor declares.

"Let's race" an arrogant voice says. I look and see Fusion looking at me. "Fine" I say smirking, knowing I will easily beat him. There is no way he can hope to keep up when he is so muscular. Muscles are kinda not helpful to climb you know?

We go last. The other group is done on the obstacle course and they, along with all the instructors in the room are waiting for our showdown. Bring it on this will be good. Wiping the smirk off his arrogant face will be the cherry on top of a truly fantastic day here in the capital. We are off now, racing up the wall. I am at least three feet higher than him at the halfway point. The wall gets trickier here, with less rocks to grab and the ones that are there are slippery. My hand slips off one and I just manage to get hold of another. He has almost caught up now but I feel a sudden burst of energy and easily make it to the top first.

Needless to say, fusions red face is not from exertion. Ha! Being the absolute personification of grace and class that he is, he pretends to slip thus almost pushing me off the wall. Even though I am wearing a harness it is still a low blow. I can hear the instructors grumbling. Luckily my super amazing ninja reflexes kicked in and I ducked to the side. The kicker is that he slipped and fell on the platform! Ha! Oh this is so perfect.

The angry murmurs and shouts turn into laughter at his humiliation. Taking no time I glide down the rope onto the floor, eager to not be standing alone with a murderous fusion on a small platform 40 feet up. A round of applause greets me as all the tributes, barring the careers and instructors chime in. Even the other careers look amused to see him being taken down a peg.

Embarrass a career? Mission Accomplished!

Priya ? Careers 0. What number was I on? I forget with so many points to add.


	7. A Restless Mind

**A Restless Mind**

Night 2 in the Capital

* * *

_"Hopeless implies that at one time there was hope. And that's another word I don't understand. __Hope only exists for people who have choices"_

―Sherrilyn Kenyon, Dance with the Devil

* * *

I lay on my bed watching the ceiling of my room. In particular the fancy ornate fan go round and round. It feels like it is a countdown beating down the seconds of my life, each time it circles it brings me closer to my death. I try to avoid thinking of the games as it makes my stomach curl painfully.

The seconds tick by however…

I close my eyes and let my mind go blank as I solely concentrate on the feel of the cold air being blown on my body. It begins to get uncomfortably cold after several minutes but reminds me I am still alive. For how much longer though? I open my eyes and try to follow one arm of the fan as it goes round, but it goes so fast it makes me dizzy and my eyes hurt. Anything to take my mind off the games…

Okay enough. Time to stop being a baby, ignoring the reality of my situation is not going to help or make it go away. It will make it worse if I am not prepared. I go over the training day today. First off it was clear nobody trusted me, they all thought I was a nasty career spy or something. Even though I don't blame them for thinking that it still hurt some to hear them say those things. Oh well I need to have a thick skin if I will have any chance to get through the games.

I knew from the moment my name was called my main weakness was that I was too nice, too caring, not being able to kill and slaughter innocent kids with no conscience just because the capital says to. Indeed looking at all of the kids in person just makes me want to throw up in repulsion that we need to kill each other in order to live and knowing they will all soon be dead. How sick can these bastards be?

I still don't see how I can kill anyone, but it is something I will have to solve. I have to accept it. I guess I can if someone attacks me. I can't stop seeing the images from past games of tributes viciously murdering each other and enjoying it. Worse than that is the empty hollowness in their eyes and expressions. It numbs them so they are not even aware of what they doing and how wrong it is. I don't ever want to end up like that. What is the point of living if you lose all sense of yourself and your humanity? If you become bitter at the world and live forever with self-loathing?

There are those that go crazy from the guilt too. That sounds like what my reaction would be. It never turns out well for them either. Somehow I need to find a medium, to not lose my sense of self but not become too wrapped in guilt that it destroys me. I guess they are one in the same, that people will block out all feeling and emotion because they either can't handle it or don't want to feel it. Ugh this country really sucks doesn't it? What kind of government would force teenagers and kids to deal with these horrible decisions and contemplate the darkest part of human nature? It is bad enough at 16, how are 12 year olds supposed to deal with it?

I should know. In my first reaping my name was called. There were several volunteers before I could barely leave my section though. The tribute that year ended up being an 18 year old named Ariel. She made it to the final 6 before being killed by the boy from 10. I was cheering for her hoping she would win, and when she died I couldn't help but feel guilty. I know I shouldn't have since she would have volunteered no matter whose name was drawn. It still felt personal though since she saved my life.

Of course years later now my name was drawn again, this time there was no volunteer to save me. Now thinking back on my 12 year old self it seems so long ago, and I was so young and immature back then. I had absolutely no chance. At least I have a chance this time. At least that's what I tell myself. Maybe it is karma giving me 4 years to be more prepared. And more prepared I am. I would never consider myself a career, and have never stepped foot in the academy. In fact it was actually hearing my name when I was 12 that made me want to be able to defend myself and have skills if I was ever in the games. Naturally I know district 4 things that would help like using spears to fish and nets and traps as such. I was also a good swimmer of course. I started running on the beach to up my endurance, condition my body and clear my mind. It turned out I really loved it and it became a hobby for me. So now I am really lean and athletic, which is always a huge plus for a tribute. I also swam a lot. I was an expert at climbing masts and had good balance from working on the boats.

The main captain in charge of this, a man named Horace became like a mentor to me. He was the one who I went to and saw every day at the docks. Anyway Horace is an older man, around 50 maybe. He used to be a captain on the fishing runs but retired from that and now is in charge of maintaining the ships. He taught me to throw knives just in case and I became quite good at it. Throwing knives and spears are very similar so it was easy to get the hang of. He's the one who gave me the knives hidden in my cave along the desolate part of the beach where I run, swim and chill out. That is mostly what my day consisted of, running on the beach before school, going to the docks afterwards and then swimming. Geese I sound like a career don't I?

I never had many friends; I preferred to be alone when not with my family. I just never seemed to understand my peers I guess. Many trained to become careers so I naturally was not that close to them. As for the rest, well, the girls all seem so silly and annoying only caring about hair, clothes, makeup and boys. None of those things interested me so I spent my time alone, with my family or at the docks. I never had a boyfriend either despite offers and interest. I just was not interested in dating one of the arrogant pompous career hopefuls that seem to be all we have in 4. I am really close to my family though, especially my dad. I hate when he leaves on a fishing trip. I have always been a daddys girl who was more at home on a boat listening to old fisherman's tales than going shopping or flirting with guys. I am not a tom boy or anything, don't get me wrong. I just prefer simplicity and solitude. I guess you could say I am more the observing type. Until I was 10 I was an only child but then my parents had Sky. I loved hanging out with her and teaching her to swim and climb trees. She is 6 now and since I will most likely die within a few weeks she will not really remember me when she grows up. To me this is probably the most painful thing of being reaped.

Look at me rambling on about my life. It doesn't really matter anymore does it? Soon I will be just another dead tribute girl. Unless I win. Become a murderer. I really hate this, having to think of these horrible choices. Why did I have to be reaped? I was just a quiet girl who never did anything to anger the capital. Sure I disliked them and hated the games but it all seemed like such a distant threat. No one I knew had ever been reaped. The capitals cruelty was never personal. Well it is now. I never knew quite how horrible it feels to be forced from your home –essentially being kidnapped- and paraded around for slaughter. I assure you that I know now exactly how powerless and hopeless it makes you feel. How my heart feels like it was ripped out and how my body is constantly tense it makes me nauseous. How I am screaming in my mind for nobody to hear. I feel like a piece of meat, completely existing for others to consume without having any say or control of my own. I have no control over my life anymore, no more than any avox. No one can truly know the feeling unless you have experienced it yourself. Of course everyone who has is dead, except the victors. I guess it is easy enough to ignore when it is not happening to you. Easy to forget the kids murdered for no reason.

I guess it is not for no reason. It is because the capital is greedy and ruthless and power hungry and does not give a rats ass about the districts or families they tear apart. They only care about keeping their power, which means preventing the districts from realizing how fucked they are and doing something about it. The games are ingenious in that regard unfortunately. They keep people from focusing on the capital by pitting us all against each other. Petty grudges and rivalries between districts take the blame away and the prospect of one kid making it out alive gives us enough hope to play the game. If they just killed us all we would retaliate with no hope for living and it would incite rebellion. There would be no careers in that case. After all who would be stupid enough to volunteer for something with a 0% survival chance? Although judging by how brainless some careers are they still might. I feel bad for the careers. That probably makes no sense right? Well I do because they are so twisted and warped that they can't see how wrong the games are. Seriously who would willingly go into a game with a 4% chance of surviving? Unless you were desperate or something it just makes no sense to me.

My parents always taught me to pity the less fortunate after all. I figure not having enough brainwaves to see how idiotic they are qualifies them as mentally handicapped. Sure they are trained for it and everything but still. All they know is how to kill and hurt others. What the hell kind of life is that? How can any parent ever actually _want_ their child in the games? They should be arrested for child endangerment. Trust me I come from a career district so I am aware of how it goes. It sickens me to see parents force their kids to train and volunteer when they do not want to. Especially the victors, who know from personal experience how awful it must be in the games. Even if their kid survives who would want to put their kid through that? Obviously someone who doesn't care about their well being, only their own pride and fame and whatever else goes through their little twisted minds. Suddenly it makes sense if careers have such parents raising them and teaching them these beliefs. If not the parents then the whole system that enforces that it is the only worthwhile life goal. How are they to know better? Well they still should.

Luckily the careers from 4 are nowhere near as awful as the ones from 1 and 2. There is a mantra that 4 is not a real career district in reality as we are not as brutal and bloodthirsty. There are some exceptions though, about 2 years back we had this Victor named Victor. Haha I know ironic right. Well he was just as bad as those from 1 and 2, if not worse. During the games I was really hoping he would die and that is saying something as I usually support my district. He was way beyond arrogant and cruel, definitely psychotic, and ended up with the most number of kills (12) that had been seen in decades. I could barely stand to look at him by the end and was sickened when he won. I had been supporting a girl from 5 named Lisa who was really smart and used a series of intricate traps to stay alive. She made it to the final two, only to have Victor torture her mercilessly for hours before ending it. When he came back he insisted on being called Victor Vick. He had turned quite a few in 4 off him however which is saying something, as we usually love our victors. It didn't help that he killed his own district partner by tying her to a tree and setting her on fire after cutting off her tongue when she dared to tell him that he was being an idiot.

I still remember him standing there laughing like an insane maniac while she was on fire. It was one of the worst things I have ever seen in the games. Ugh and when he came back he was insufferable. He thought he could do whatever he wanted and everyone had to kiss his shoes. He had taunted the family of his district partner, including her 10 year sister and 8 year old brother in the middle of the market one time by offering to light them on fire too so they could join her. Quite the pleasant boy don't you think? And don't even get me started on how he behaved during his victory tour.

He had even come up to me last year and demanded me to go out with him. Needless to say he had not appreciated it when I told him in no uncertain terms to fuck off if you will. However you see he had this teensy little problem of a terrible temper and would not get the hint. He would not leave me alone and one day he had started to get violent and shoved me and tried to punch me so I had kicked him hard in the groin, a tactic my mom showed me if someone ever tried to attack me or force me against my consent. Naturally he was furious and that incident kind of soured him on me when he realized I was not some brainless dimwit so he tried to start some nasty rumors about me which was another reason why I didn't have many friends. Not that I really cared anyway. A couple months later he had been sent to a mental hospital after getting in a street fight and killing three guys before the peace keepers got him under control. He has not mentored or been seen since, a big relief for the district in my opinion.

It is pretty late now so I should try to go to sleep but I am just too restless so I decide to walk around. When I approach the kitchen I see Finnick and Mags sitting at the table talking. It is clear this is a private conversation so I hide in the hallway before they hear me.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Mags is asking, "No" FInnick says "I don't". He looks pretty beat up.

"Come on this is too much, you will wear yourself out" Mags warns in a motherly tone.

"I don't have a choice" Finnck says sharply "I never did! They will kill her if I don't."

"I know" Mags says sadly, "I am sorry for giving you such a persona during your games, I was just trying to get you the best chance of sponsors" she trails off. "I know," he says quietly "I don't blame you."

"If I knew what would happen I would never have gone that route, now you have to be with them all the time" Mags whispers almost to herself.

"It's okay I'm used to it now" he groans, "That why I am worried for Priya, she will be quite popular if she survives given how pretty she is" he says sadly "and I know she has a six year old sister and her parents."

My whole body is tense now that Finnick has started talking about me. What are they talking about? What is he forced to do? Why is he worried for me if I won because I am pretty? Then it all clicks as I remember Finnick always having a different girl on his arm in the capital, does the capital force him to _have sex_ with them? Is that all my life will be if I manage to win anyway? I have to keep the bile down as I think of having sex with disgusting perverted capital men like the one at the parade. I never even had a boyfriend before, let alone ever had sex. I almost start hyperventilating at the thought of what my life would be, as it sounds like they will kill victor's family members if they refuse to do it. If it comes down to that what choice would I have? I hate the capital.

Poor Finnick he must be really suffering having to do that so often and be someone he's not. How many other victors are forced into that? No wonder they can never recover from the games between living with guilt, nightmares and self-loathing, mentoring and having to live and breathe every second of each games every year, being forced into basically being a prostitute for the capital and worrying the president will kill their family. So great now not even winning the games seems like an ideal plan. I don't want to die and I don't want to live if it means being a fucking capital prostitute. What's a girl to do?


	8. Training Showdown: Take Two

**Training Showdown: Take Two**

Day 3 in the Capital

Training Day 2

* * *

_"Before anything else, preparation is the key to success."_

- Alexander Graham Bell

* * *

Back to training

I am becoming convinced that the hunger games might have a secret purpose. That would be to study human psychology as there is surely nowhere to study that quite like the training room. I mean you throw in a bunch of hormonal teenagers, threaten them with death and put them all together to train in such an intense atmosphere and things are bound to get interesting. It is almost like a second game within the games, watching all the politics, alliances, tactics and strategy behind them.

Anywho I am glad to have a new ally in Zari. She smiles warmly at us as me and cam enter for round 2 of training. I am sure the careers; Fusion in particular will want revenge for yesterday. I still can't help sniggering at the resounding success it was. His face was beet red at the top of the tower. He was snarling and I think you could see steam coming out of his ears if you cared to look close enough. If ever there was an appropriate place for the "all brawn, no brains" stereotype this was it. And then he tried to push me off but it ended up backfiring for him when I dodged him and he fell on his face. If I thought his face was red before it was nothing compared to then. Aww sweet memories to keep me warm at night. Of course it would be a lot sweeter if he wasn't going to be trying to kill me shortly. While he is a total doofus, he is still a dangerous one if I am not careful.

Cam, Zari and I decided to spend the morning learning survival skills and the afternoon at the weapons and combat stations. It goes smoothly as we review fire starting techniques, shelter building, tracking and knot tying which cam and I are already experts at being from 4 so we work on some traps and snares again. All in all it was a pretty relaxing morning and we are all feeling more confident now. We just might get far in the games. I keep an eye on the other tributes looking to pin down strengths and weaknesses as well as personality and attitudes. You never know what information could give you an edge in the arena. I notice the same things I did yesterday for the most part. The pair from 3 spend a lot of time at the trap station using electricity again. The siblings from 8 are always together. The boy from 7 is great with an axe of course. Then of course there are the careers that exclusively stay at the various weapon stations.

We decide to quickly go over the edible plants station before lunch. You don't want to be stupid and accidently eat a poisonous berry after all. I focus mostly on memorizing the poisonous ones, not bothering with the safe ones. I can definitely recognize the nightlock berry now that the girl from 7 pointed out to me yesterday. My eyes automatically look for the little 12 year old. I spy her or more importantly the careers all advancing on her. The bastards are trying to scare her and it is unfortunately working exactly as they hoped as the tiny girl looks terrified. This is just too much for me, they have gone too far now.

"For goodness sake" I growl watching them with narrowed eyes. I promptly jump down from my stool at the station and march right over and force myself in front of her facing the careers.

"Leave her alone" I say loudly and fold my arms defiantly, daring them to make a move. I can hear the whole room become quiet as everyone is watching the confrontation. Oh guess I am putting on quite the show so far eh?

Fusion is front and center hissing in my face, "You will regret ever meeting us 4; I will slice you up so bad there will be nothing to send your poor pathetic little family when I am done."

Despite being absolutely terrified by the threat I bury my fear within me instead channeling my fury and anger.

"Oh that's so scary I think I'm shaking" I say in a confident way over the top sarcastic manner. Thank god there is not a trace of fear to be found in my voice, facial expression or body language. I am pure confidence and sarcasm, and love it by the way.

"Now why don't you all go back and play with your little weapons cause it's all you can do" I chide as if scolding a young child.

"Come on lets go" I say promptly turning around and pulling the girl away from these losers.

Priya 5 Careers 0. Does that count as more than point you think?

Fusion starts to grab my shoulder and pull me back around but I easily dodge it and send him a death glare.

We stop in an empty corner of the room and I say, "don't worry about them they are just jerks, what's your name sweetie?"

"Melody" she responds shyly.

"Well hi Melody, I'm Priya, want to join us?" I ask nodding over at my allies still at the edible berries station who are watching us.

"Okay" she replies so we head back. "This is Melody, this is Cam and Zari" I say introducing them and they all say hi politely. 20 minutes later I still can't really concentrate as I am still glowering over the confrontation. I really am starting to despise those dickheads. Maybe that will be my new name for them.

"Fusion Blake, head dickhead" has a nice ring to it don't you think?

"I can't believe you did that" Zari says after a while breaking the silence that developed.

"Yeah well I am not going take any of their crap this year" I say, "I am sick of them thinking they own the place." I can't help but notice the appreciative glances the other tributes are sending me, which makes me feel good. I guess they won't doubt that I am not a career now. Hopefully defending a 12 year old doesn't make me look too weak or soft though but I guess it does. Oh well see if I care. Maybe I should be intimidating with the weapons later. Hmmm decisions decisions.

Then it is time for lunch so the 4 of us sit together. It is pretty much an unspoken agreement that melody has joined the alliance. After all Cam and Zari are good people and don't want to see the tiny adorable girl defenseless and alone either. Having her makes me feel better yet more nervous at the same time. Better because she is sweet and cute and I don't want to think of her all alone in the games and being scared and the careers getting her. Having another member can't hurt anyway right? It makes me more nervous since she probably can't fight and might slow us down and make us more vulnerable. Besides becoming too attached to her is not a good idea. After lunch we go back to work on weapons and combat.

Time to decide my strategy now; should I show everything and intimidate or hide my true abilities? I don't bother with spears and knives at first, instead deciding on archery again and then hand to hand combat. I find that using the bow and arrows feels a lot more natural this time. I hit the target with good aim every time and start aiming at dummies instead as they provide more of a challenge. I hit one in the neck and the dummy falls over. I can smell the scent of arrogance and cruelty in the air and look up. Sure enough there they are in the flesh, the Dickheads. You would think they had had enough of me by now but I guess not. Sometimes you just can't stop someone from banging their head against the wall you know? Captain Dickhead himself, as I am sure you can guess who I am talking about, comes and grabs a bow and arrow. Oh does Mr. Dickhead know archery? Color me shocked.

I smile with a brilliant plan forming. I shoot and purposefully barely hit the dummies arm. Dickhead laughs as if it is the funniest thing in the world. "Watch how it is done little brat from 4," he says with a malicious and threatening undertone. He lifts his bow and arrow preparing to shoot but I have already shot an arrow at his dummy and it hits it in that special place between the legs with incredible speed and vigor. Suffice to say it might not be fatal but life would certainly not be any fun afterwards for a guy. All of the careers gasp at my "brutality" and look at me as if I was something they had never seen before. I smile sweetly and innocently and say "Maybe you're the ones who should watch how it's done" and then I crudely smile with satisfaction and vulgarity at the poor dummy who was brutally relieved of its manhood.

Priya +5,000 Careers 0.

I think that's enough of archery huh. I see my allies staring at me looking stunned. What do they really not know me yet? Like I said I will not cower down to the careers.

Back to tactics I think it is a good idea to know some long range weapons, some short range ones and then hand to hand as it covers all the bases. My best is short range with knives and spears of course. Archery takes care of long range so that leaves hand to hand. No matter what if I have to battle a huge muscular guy hand to hand I will lose due to pure strength. I head over and try my hand with a short pretty blonde 30 year old woman named Linda. I find I do pretty well, what can I say, I am feisty when I want to be. She shows me the best way to overpower someone by hitting the weakest and most vulnerable spots like the groin neck and face. I then practice sparring with a sword but find I am not that great at it but I can duck and dodge attacks really well.

I am pretty sore after that so I decide to not do any running, climbing or agility. Instead I observe the rest of the tributes, including my allies. Melody can use a small axe okay and Cam is best at using a spear or sword. Zari is okay at throwing knives. Melody is good at survival skills, especially finding edible food. Zari is good at healing which is a very useful in the arena and she also learns some poisons. I make note to be careful if she offers me something when it gets close to the end. Cam is the best fighter and the strongest which is no surprise.

Between the four of us our alliance is well rounded and very strong.

Bring on the arena.


	9. An Unexpected Ally

**An Unexpected Ally**

Night 3 in the Capital

* * *

_"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. __The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."_

-Abraham Lincoln

* * *

The days are going by so fast. It is already time for the private sessions tomorrow.

I feel like my life is just slipping away which it is.

I feel really agitated. I feel…..like throwing knives.

Maybe I feel angry and just want to vent.

Throwing knives is good therapy you know.

Too bad I don't have any in my room. There is some in the training room though.

The _empty_ training room to be exact

Smiling slightly I slip out of our suite and take the elevator down to the basement. Sure tributes are not supposed to train outside of training but who will know?

I quietly enter the training room to it mostly dark except a few dim lights. I carefully look around in case but nobody is here. Perfect. I walk over to the knife rack, passing by the poor unfortunate dummy that still has the arrow in its crotch. I face the dummies and imagine each one is the president. BAM! A knife sails into his eye. Another into his neck. Another into his forehead.

I let out all of my anger at the capital, the president, and the careers.

I was right it is good therapy.

I hit bulls-eye after bulls-eye with a silent rage.

"Whoa" a voice calls out suddenly. I immediately whip around to see the district 9 boy Rueben emerge from behind the fake climbing tree.

Damn I thought I was alone. I must be getting soft. The worst part was he had been talking to the careers the last training day so I think he might join them.

"I didn't see you throw like that in training," he says.

"Good" I reply evasively.

He hadn't seemed to do much in training, mainly watched the others. I had seen him do well in hand to hand and with blades though.

He was pretty mysterious; tall dark handsome and brooding. He smirks at me now with an amused expression.

"So what just figured you'd come down and get some secret training in?" he asks interestedly.

"No, not training, therapy" I say smirking. He laughs.

"Have some anger issues huh?" he asks again. Why can't he just go away and leave me to my knives?

"None of your business is it? Aren't you a career?" I accuse.

"They might have offered me a place yes" he admits. Figures

"Besides what are _you_ doing here?" I interrogate.

"Dunno, got bored I guess" he says vaguely. He looks at me as if deciding if he can trust me. Apparently he thinks he can because he says, "Want to know a secret?"

"Why in the world would I care?" I say in a bored voice, trying not to show how interested I am in what he might say.

"Well you might not, but I'll tell you anyway." He continues in a whisper after looking around, "I'm not really going to join them, just grab supplies and weapons without them killing me and run."

"Okay then, why would you tell me that?" I ask confused.

"Dunno, just felt like it." he says. I glare at him feeling like he is lying.

"What?" he asks noticing my staring. Yep he is lying.

"What's the real reason you told me?"

"Pffft okay fine I just wanted you to know I am not one of them." he says sheepishly, "seeing your ability with knives I don't want to be on your bad side"

"Oh" I say not convinced.

"Don't tell them okay?" he asks suddenly sounding worried. I can admit that I like feeling intimidating.

"Don't worry, I won't" I say after a minute, "I fully support you screwing them over."

He smirks, "I thought you might."

Suddenly we seem to have formed a weird bond in screwing the careers, an understanding between kindred spirits.

"How about we have a truce or mutual understanding if you will, we won't kill each other for a while if we come across each other in the arena?" he proposes.

I consider this. Of course I am not planning on killing anyone if I can help it, so I wouldn't kill him anyway. This could only be a good thing.

"All right, you have a deal as long as you understand it means not killing my allies as well, that being my district partner and the girls from 7 and 12" I answer.

"Of course" he agrees at once, "Allying with a 12 year old is an interesting choice, I saw you defend her."

"Everyone did, I don't like seeing people scaring and killing innocent 12 year olds Rueben." I say defiantly.


	10. Putting On a Show

**Putting On a Show**

Day 4 in the Capital

The Private Sessions

* * *

_"Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. _

_Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself."_

- Harvey Fierstein

* * *

I still have no idea what to do as we all wait in the room for the private sessions to begin. Oh yeah and to whoever thought it was a good idea to haul us all together to wait, well I would like to have a few words with them before I die. I think this is just another form of torture they force upon us before the arena.

I would say the atmosphere in here is so thick you could cut it with a knife but that is so clichéd. Besides it doesn't exactly do the atmosphere justice. The careers, I mean the Dickheads, are all sitting together of course, happily chatting away waiting for the first name to be called.

It is obvious they are talking about all of us, no doubt deciding who they want to kill the most.

That would be me.

This makes me incredibly nervous as I have seen enough of the games to know it never go well when the careers are after your blood. Now contrary to what you might think I am not trying to be suicidal in provoking them.

I have no plan to meet or challenge the careers in the arena for as long as I can help it, but I will not cower from them when I do. I am not some helpless tribute without any fighting skills after all.

I feel a lot better having my allies, especially Cam on my side. It would have been a lot harder to go against the careers if I was by myself. I just wish this was all over with already. Let's cut to the chase and brutally kill each other like feral animals just because the capital says so.

I watch them with hatred. Satin and Gemcity seem like such airheads, always flirting with each other. I can practically smell the pheromones from across the room. Aurora is a bitch, clear and simple. A very dangerous bitch mind you. She is good at throwing knives and bossing people around.

"Gemcity Night!"

The boy kisses Satin and heads in with a smirk on his face. Satin preens like everyone is just oh so jealous of the fact that she is a slut. In fact I think I will call her Slut Dickhead now.

Fusion on the other hand is something else. He is huge and muscular, the typical brute. That is exactly what he is, a brute with no brain. Unfortunately that type happens to do quite well in the games for some reason. He has been glaring at me the whole time. His brown eyes are cold and cruel, always narrowed with maliciousness and hatred at me.

I glare back with equal fervor, not wanting him to know how much his glaring is unsettling me. Or how it sends shivers down my spine and makes me want to run back to my room hide in the closet and cover my eyes.

"Satin Rose!"

Aww the little Slut Dickhead prances out.

Everything about Fusions expression and body language suggests venomous brutality and it is all personally directed at yours truly. Just the sheer size of him is intimidating; he could snap my neck in an instant. That is if he ever had the chance. Then there is Rueben. Ah yes the enigmatic Rueben.

I am still not sure what to make of him after our little rendezvous last night. I am still upset and embarrassed that he was hiding and saw me the whole time and I didn't notice. I am going to have to be more careful. He is the only person who knows how well I can throw knives. Even my district partner Cam hasn't seen me throw them like that. Hopefully he won't tell the careers about it. I would like to think he won't but he easily could have just been playing me the whole time with his spiel about not staying in the careers.

Well I guess we will see about Rueben in the arena, you can't hide your true colors there.

"Fusion Blake!"

Ah the head dickhead himself struts off; hopefully he fucks himself in the session to save us all from being further smothered by his arrogance.

I look around to see how the other tributes are coping with the stress. The boy from 3, Hertz keeps jumping at every sound. I don't think he will last long. The girl, Ampere has her eyes closed and is muttering under her breath. The boy from 5, Atom is scratching the ground with his finger looking agitated. The girl, Lyra looks like she wants to puke. I look at my allies; Cam has his eyes fixed on the ground, Zari looks dazed and is staring off into space and Melody looks like she is hyperventilating. Her district partner, Braxton puts his hand on her shoulder and whispers something and she relaxes somewhat.

"Aurora Spring!"

Ah yes, the Bitch Dickhead.

Ugh. At least I will be out of here soon. I pity the ones from 12 who have to wait for hours. No wonder they never get anywhere in the games, this wait is way more than enough to unhinge you.

At least all of the careers are gone now except Rueben of course. He looks like he doesn't know what to do now they have all left. I bet he will get a good score. He seems to be a silent ninja type.

"Hertz Powers!"

Mousy Boy as I will call him now gets up shaking and slowly walks out.

Crap I will be up soon and still don't know what to do for my session. I am tempted to do something rebellious but it is probably better to just go along with it for now. After all nobody will see and it will just put a giant target on my back for the game makers. I don't need the careers and game makers personally calling for my head.

So what to do? Something to show off my athleticism and skill throwing spears and knives. But what? What will impress them the most?

"Ampere Current!"

Electric Brain takes a deep breath and walks out.

I can feel Cam getting nervous next to me as he is the next name.

"Know what you're going to do?" I ask

"Throw some spears and use a sword I guess" he replies, "how about you?"

I am about to reply when I am interrupted.

"Cam Sheenan!"

He gulps and gets up. Hmm dunno what moniker to give my district partner. Maybe Baby Face? Don't think he would appreciate that!

"Good luck" I tell him.

"You too" he says as he leaves.

I close my eyes and try to focus. I need a plan fast.

Oh how I would love to beat the careers scores. They would just love that. In fact they would be so upset they would probably have a cow.

If humans could have cows that is.

They just can't seem to handle any threat to their superiority. Well they are in for a very rude awakening. Cause I plan to beat them. They want a show, they'll get a show. A brilliant plan starts forming in my mind. I just need to do it right or I will look like an idiot.

"Priya Carmichael!"

Well it is now or never.

Once again I bury my fear within me and channel my determination instead. I confidently get up and coolly walk out without even a backwards glance. So long suckers. I grab the massive wooden door and pull it open, taking on the persona of a warrior girl in some great battle against injustice.

I decide to start things with a bang, immediately sprinting full speed towards the knives rack, looking over my shoulder as I do pretending I am under attack. I dart behind the rack, my back to the game makers table, as if taking cover from the "attacker" by the door. I pick up two knives and quickly throw one towards a dummy 30 yards away to the left of the door, and the other at a dummy 30 yards away on right of it. They both hit them right in the heart.

I hadn't planned or set up anything, thinking improvising would be the most impressive. Besides I will have to improvise in the arena so might as well practice.

Immediately after throwing the knives I dart past the spear rack and grab two spears without stopping, sliding behind the fake climbing tree and wait. The room is now deathly silent. I am hidden from the game makers by the tree, so I am all but invisible to them showing I can be silent and stealthy as well. I give it a few long moments to demonstrate that I can disappear easily when under attack. Lest they get bored I throw one of the spears, it sailing out of the tree into a dummy right in front of them. I can hear it reverberating around the room.

As soon as I threw the spear I quietly sprint towards the climbing wall. I put the other spear in my mouth and begin climbing the 40 foot wall with ease. I don't have a harness on either. Whoops. It would have kind of ruined my show if I had stopped to put on a harness though! When I reach the top I place the spear on top of the rope used to slide down and put my hands on either side and use it to slide down. As I get halfway down I put one hand on the rope and hold the spear in the other sending it flying into a dummy's neck.

I gracefully hit the ground running and after a couple seconds fall into a neat forward roll pretending I just had to dodge something. Just after I get up I spot a random knife left on the floor and grab it and slam it into a dummy's heart a couple feet later as I run by without stopping. I barely notice the rope burn on my hands. I now sprint to the obstacle course and scramble up to the starting platform. You see it is kind of like a kid's playground in a way and has a high platform that you start from and begin running across a bridge.

Instead of going across the bridge I jump on the side railing of the platform and gracefully pull myself onto the catwalk on the ceiling. I am now invisible to the game makers again. I walk a little ways on the narrow catwalks nearing the game makers. I can see them looking around confused towards the obstacle course when I am right above them. Idiots.

Smirking slightly, I take a knife that I picked up and send it flying right into the wooden table they are sitting at and it slams in it so hard only the hilt is still visible. They all jump and a few let out a scream. One of them even falls backward right off his chair. I slide down a rope calmly and triumphant and they look at me stunned. I give them a mocking salute and a death glare and walk out coolly without saying a word.

Victory!


	11. Grading on the Curve

**Grading on the Curve**

Night 4 in the Capital

The Scores

* * *

_ "ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS."_

- George Orwell, _Animal Farm_, Ch. 10

* * *

When I get back to our floor I can't help but feel elated at how well the session went. I never thought it would go that well. I can't help but giggle at their reaction when I threw the knife in the table. But then it dawns on me that next time it will be real kids I will be throwing the weapons at not dummies and tables. This brings my mood down quite a bit. When Finnick asks how it went I can't help but smirk and say "pretty well I think".

"That's good; a good score will get more sponsors" he says.

"Not that you would have trouble getting sponsors even if I got a 1, you just need to bat your eye lashes and would have half the population at your knees" I tease him. He grins sheepishly but it almost seems like a grimace. I remember two nights ago and immediately feel bad.

Later we all crowd around the TV waiting for the scores. The seal flashes and anthem plays.

"Welcome Panem! We are here to announce the training scores that the tributes received during their private sessions earlier today! Without further ado, let's begin! Gemcity Night 9! Satin Rose also 9! Fusion Blake 10! Aurora Spring 10! Hertz Powers 5! Ampere Current 7! Cam Sheenan 8! Priya Carmichael 11!"

An 11? Wow I did not think I would get that high. I beat all the careers too!

"That's great, an 11!" Finnick says as the rest of the scores are read.

"Braxton Thomas 9! Melody Channing 4! Raiden Shield 6! Aspen Shield 4! Rueben Tahara 10! Nova Starling 6! Zion Rex 10! Calla Storm 3! Piper Crane 2! Bryony Helix 5! Reed Ghent 4! Zari Holden 6!"

I don't pay attention to the rest of the scores that much. I guess my 11 only further serves to cement the target on my back. The careers will be even more pissed I beat them and I have been branded the biggest threat. Maybe I should have thought twice about getting a high score.

No what am I thinking? Of course I should have tried to get the best score I could to attract sponsors. It is not like I would have flown under the radar anyway. The scores don't matter at all once we are in the arena but I should have plenty of sponsors at least. Now the only thing left is the interviews…


	12. It's All Just Fun and Games

** It's All Just Fun and Games **

Day 5 in the Capital

Interview Prep

* * *

_"You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,_  
_Love like you'll never be hurt,_  
_Sing like there's nobody listening,_  
_And live like it's heaven on earth." _

- William W. Purkey

* * *

I am woken by Sashira the next morning.

"Come on sleepy head it is time to work on interviews today!" she exclaims loudly.

I groan and get up, changing into a purple sweatshirt and jeans. I notice that is a dreary rainy day outside, the kind that makes you want to snuggle back into a warm bed. I go out to see everyone almost done with breakfast and I grab a mug of hot chocolate. After that we head to our rooms to prepare for the interviews tomorrow. Finnick and Mags follow me into my room and pull three chairs up and I sit across from them both.

"Okay so we need to come up with an interview angle for you" Finnick begins.

"Why? Can't I just be myself? I don't really feel like acting a certain way that I'm not" I argue.

"You need a plan for them, what do you prefer?" he asks.

"Dunno" I mutter.

"Okay well how about being likable? It's as true as anything?" Mags suggests.

They then ask me lots of questions that are likely to be asked in the interview, I answer as well as I can but quickly grow annoyed of this charade, especially when asked how I like the capital.

"I know it is frustrating, but you have to just grit your teeth and do it! I am not saying you have to gush about the capital but don't make it so obvious that you despise it!" Finnick says frustrated.

"Yeah but I wouldn't want to lie now would I!" I say ruefully smirking and they roll their eyes.

"Okay well how about quiet and mysterious?" Finnick suggests.

I try this next but think I don't exactly have the right temperament for this angle.

"I am guessing you are opposed to a sexy angle?" he asks and the look on my face says it all.

"It would have worked well too, what about tough and dangerous?"

"If you think I am going to go and act like a career saying how much I can't wait to kill everyone…" I start

"Okay okay, what about snarky and sarcastic? That suits you" Finnick says sighing.

I find this is my favorite angle by far.

What can I say? I _am_ snarky and sarcastic, especially when it comes to the capital.

* * *

Then it is time to switch, which means oodles of fun with Sashira! I am not too fond of my escort if hadn't noticed. She is a pretty typical capitalite which means she is annoying, uptight and only thinks of this as a game. She has me practice walking in 4 inch heels wearing a dress. Then we go over proper etiquette for the interview. Basically all this means is that I sit there for an hour of her correcting my posture, showing me how to sit in a chair correctly, where to place my hands, how to cross my legs and keep my back straight.

_"Don't slouch down like that! It's bad-mannered!"_

_"Keep your hands folded like this, not like that you insolent girl!"_

_"Don't sit so far back for goodness sakes! The point is so they can see you, not for you to hide!"_

_"I said walk with grace, not like a drunken sailor!"_

_"Girl are you purposefully trying to give me a heart attack?"_

_"Always cross your right leg over your left, never the other way around! Don't you dare forget it!"_

_"You will actually try to not be a bitch in your interview right?"_

_"You're as charming as a leper!"_

_"You have the posture of a crippled jellyfish!"_

Oh and then she starts with facial expressions and smiling.

_"You look like a convulsing clown!"_

_"For heaven's sakes whatever you do, do not smile like that!"_

_"Stop frowning, no one like a sour puss!"_

_"Come on it is an honor to be here so be happy about it!"_

_"Smile bigger, bigger! That's it!"_

_"Now that wasn't so bad was it?"_

_"You are pretty so stop acting self-conscious!"_

_"What do you mean you won't do it again?"_

_"UGH, I give up on you, honestly!"_

Yeah that was shit loads of fun! I didn't even know I had so many muscles in my mouth to feel sore from smiling so much. Thank god it's over now so I never have to go through that torture again. I don't get how people can stand this place every day.


	13. Oh Scandalous Interviews!

**Oh Scandalous Interviews! **

Day 6 in the Capital

The Interviews

* * *

_"If you're holding out for universal popularity, I'm afraid you will be in this cabin for a very long time."_

-Albus Dumbledore, _Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire__  
_

* * *

Oh joy, the interviews.

Hours of sitting and watching my fellow tributes be charming and endearing and put on fake acts. And then there's the fact that tomorrow, tomorrow! I will be in the arena and could be flat out DEAD! So yeah it is hitting me hard now and I am kind of freaking out a little. No matter I can remain strong and will not go crazy with emotions or anything; that is for weaker people than myself. We are all gathered back stage now, lined up in order of districts with the female first.

I am wearing a short pretty strapless red dress. The fabric seems to glow brilliantly like embers and looks great against my tanned skin. I also have on black tights and 1 inch black heels. My hair is pulled into a high sultry ponytail. I have on black eyeliner and smokey eye shadow that highlights my eyes and seems to make them glow. Over all it is pretty simple compared to the chariot rides but it is a little too sexy for my liking but it's not too revealing or anything thank god unlike some of the other unfortunate female tributes. Overall I feel like some alluring creature born of fire and can't help but feel the power and confidence it gives me. Maybe it is a combination of that and my warrior girl persona and getting an 11 that makes me feel as though I have some great force that can burn and destroy anything if I want to. And right now I want to burn the capital.

Not metaphorically. Literally

I hate everything about this place right now. The lights, the crowd, the noise, the clapping and cheering, the pomp and circumstance, the fake acts we put on, Caesar Flickerman and even the chair on stage. I mean the chair is made of shiny black leather in a weird circular shape. It has a really deep seat so that it will be impossible to sit without falling back and being forced to look at the ceiling. It would be hard to get back up after sitting back in it. Seriously what the fuck kind of chairs are they?

Anyway it is about to start as Caesar calls out the Slut Dickhead.

* * *

"Please welcome our first tribute, the very beautiful Satin Rose!"

I can't help but laugh when after shamelessly blowing kisses and prancing around and just generally making a huge fool of herself, she falls backwards in the chair and struggles to sit up again. Looks like someone is not very observant. I guess I should feel sorry for her as she obviously does not have as many brain cells as a person should.

"Oh dear be careful, we wouldn't want you to get hurt now!" Caesar is saying. Ah yes I forgot, tributes have to be in perfect health for their death. Satin replies by batting her eyelashes and smiling coyly at him, "Oh Caesar, don't you worry about me, I can take care of myself!"

"I am sure you can!" he says enthusiastically. He then places a hand on her thigh, "I think your training score of 9 proves that!"

"Indeed" she says giggling flirtatiously.

Basically it goes on and on like that until the buzzer sounds.

* * *

"Our next tribute, Gemcity Night!"

He who I still have yet to give a dickhead name struts out. I think this will be a good chance to find an appropriate one. They shake hands like old friends, in an easy and relaxed bromance type way.

"How are you doing Gemcity, or do you go by Gem?" Caesar asks. I can see him scowl slightly.

"Just Gem, if you will" he responds. Oh so he doesn't like his full name? Interesting. Maybe I can use it in the arena to annoy him if need be.

"Okay then Gem, how are you enjoying the capital?"

"It is great here, fantastic really. The people are really nice and it is just so exciting and busy here you know" he says easily. I unfortunately have to admit he is being rather charismatic and charming.

"That I do, I wouldn't live anywhere else! Everything exciting happens here!" Caesar says, "Anyway let's talk about the games, a 9 in training. That's quite the good score, do you feel ready for tomorrow?"

"Of course, I am ready. I can't wait to win and come back to the fine capital" he says.

The buzzer sounds after a few more precious minutes of Mr I Don't Like My Full Name Dickhead. Yes I know that moniker sucks but oh well I have better things to think about…

* * *

"And now Aurora Spring from district two!"

The Bitch Dickhead struts on stage waving to the crowd.

"Welcome Aurora! How are you feeling about the games?" he says getting right to the point.

"Oh Caesar, you might as well crown me victor right now because there is no way any of these pathetic tributes can win against me." she says smirking.

"Well you sure sound like you know what you are doing! With a 10 it is obvious you will get far!"

"I am planning to get more than far Caesar, I am planning to win and will settle for nothing less" she almost hisses.

"Well said! Care to give us a hint at how you will do that?" he asks her.

"Oh now I can't give all my secrets away can I? Where's the fun in that? Wouldn't you rather be surprised?" she smirks.

Caesar makes a big show of being disappointed, "Yes I suppose so!"

"I can promise you all a good show, you will not be disappointed, I guarantee blood will be flowing and it won't be mine!" she exclaims with a malicious gleeful smile that makes my blood run cold.

Maybe that's just because her time is up as the buzzer rings and would you look at who's up now, the Head Dickhead himself.

This should be interesting to say the least.

* * *

"Fusion Blake from district two!" calls Caesar as the brute steps on stage.

"Welcome to the show! Now Fusion how does it feel to be the favorite for the games this year?"

"Well Caesar, I wouldn't expect anything less. People can tell a victor when they see one," he says cockily.

"Indeed! So how do you feel about your 10? It must feel good to have one of the best scores!" Caesar asks.

"I should have gotten the best score; I am the strongest and will win. I assure you there will be no doubt about that." he says scowling with such underlying anger it causes the audience to go silent.

"And what do you think of the competition this year?"

"What competition? They are all nothings that are weak and will be dead soon. Every last one of them. Especially one annoying little bitch in particular." he says looking straight at me with venom in his eyes.

"Ooh! Care to tell us who that would be?' Caesar practically begs.

"Make no mistake you will know who I mean when I kill her in the arena!" he smirks.

Luckily some deity must have taken pity on us as his buzzer sounded and the district 3 girl comes on.

* * *

"Next is Ampere Current from district 3!"

"How are you doing today, Ampere?" Caesar asks the mousy looking yet intelligent 15 year old.

"Okay I guess" Electric Brain says timidly, "It's hard to believe we will be in the arena so soon."

"So how are you going to survive? Got any plans?" he asks her kindly.

"Well I can say that I am pretty smart and won't hesitate to use that to my advantage." she says.

"I would expect no less from district 3!" he exclaims enthusiastically.

"I will miss my family though, especially my brother. He's my best friend." she says sadly.

"Of course, of course. I hope you get to see him again!" he says as the buzzer sounds.

* * *

"Hertz Powers from district 3!"

Mousy Boy makes his way slowly up.

"Glad to have you on here Hertz. That is quite an interesting name by the way, how did it come about?" Caesar asks rapidly.

The small boy looks completely intimidated at first, staring shocked into the audience.

He looks at Caesar and says, "Well um, my parents are uh rather big into electronics, you know so they uh named me that I guess."

"Charming! I am sure they are cheering you on! Do you have any siblings?" he inquires.

"I have a little brother named Bit" he says meekly.

"Okay so tell us, what do you plan to do to win the games?" Caesar asks him.

"Uh well, just don't get killed" he gets out looking uncomfortable, "and I can use traps."

The buzzer sounds before long.

Oh yeah crap it's my turn.

Cam gives me a nod and a smile as I get up.

* * *

"And our next tribute is Priya Carmichael from district 4!" Caesar Flickerman calls loudly.

I walk to the stage in the cool confident yet not arrogant manner I had perfected by now. I sit down gracefully on the very edge of the chair and elegantly cross my legs and as the crowd roars. Sashira will be so proud!

"Glad to meet you Priya, don't you look amazing!" Caesar gushes.

The crowd roars with agreement and I can even hear some cat calls. Ugh.

"Well it's all due to my stylist Apollo, he is amazing, don't you think. I never look this good at home" I say cheerfully sounding likable but not ditzy.

"Indeed you look ravishing! So how are you enjoying the capital so far?"

First of all I hate being classified as ravishing. It sounds so demeaning. It will get sponsors, granted perverted ones but what the fuck! Secondly I would be just oh so delighted to tell Caesar exactly what I think of the capital. Boy he would regret asking that question then! Unfortunately much to my dismay I can't do that, but that doesn't mean I can't have my fun and take a subtle dig at them.

"Well there are certainly a lot of _interesting_ things here" I say with a confident shrewd smile, my voice carefully pausing on the word interesting. "But to me it can never compare to home."

At the last sentence the crowd goes silent as if hurt that I don't prefer the capital to my home. Oh well too bad I'm not going to make you feel better about yourselves for killing me. The silence doesn't deter me. It only emboldens me.

"So what are you planning to do to survive" he asks changing the subject, "joining the careers I assume?"

Now why would you assume that Caesar?

"No" I say sharply and confidently "I would never join the careers"

This simple statement causes gasps and much muttering and murmuring in the crowd.

Oh the scandal! The outrage! Caesar looks stunned but quickly recovers. I just smugly grin at this reaction.

"Oh why not? Surely it would be a good strategy? And with your training score…" he trails off

"Well let's just say we have some major _tactical_ differences" I say mischievously, again carefully pausing on the word tactical. Everyone wants to know what I mean, rudely screaming and calling out.

"Like what" Caesar asks, ever the one to uncover gossip and scandals from tributes.

I look right at the careers and deadpan "well mainly that I actually have a conscience"

This causes the crowd to burst into laughter. The careers as you might imagine don't exactly look thrilled with the comment. Oh well they shouldn't have trained their whole lives to kill innocent kids then.

"So do you have a plan?" he asks. Oh I have a plan all right Caesar; to not play the games…hmm I wonder how that would go down….

"Well if I did, I couldn't tell you because then it wouldn't work" I say coyly smirking.

"What about your training score, an 11, the highest of anyone! Tell us about it, what did you do?"

"Oh just a little of this, a little of that" I say vaguely.

"Okay I have to ask, we are all just dying to know! What were you and your district partner giggling and whispering about on the chariot?" he asks earnestly.

I barely hold back a laugh. I'm going to die soon and that is what they are dying to know about me? Well then I guess they will all die…oh the irony…haha I crack myself up sometimes…

"Let's just say it's between us, and I'm not telling" I say cheerfully, basking in holding something back from them.

"Oh come on!" Caesar practically begs me. Ugh have some respect. You can't take _everything_ from us.

"Sorry" I say smiling innocently.

"Okay fine but tell us did you guys know each other before then? Were you friends or something more?"

I shrug nonchalantly "Guess you'll just have to watch and find out"

"We are about out of time but good luck in being victorious and bringing honor to our country!"

"Yes it is quite the country isn't it?" I say cheerfully and then add "where murdering innocent kids is considered honorable?"

The crowd is deathly silent now and Caesar is horrified. Yeah the truth hurts. It won't hurt _them_ though.

The buzzer goes off. I just smile innocently as if I was not aware of the impact of what I said and hadn't just defied the capital.

He recovers quickly again, "Indeed it is quite the country! Priya Carmichael of district 4!"

The crowd cheers are the loudest by far, I guess they liked me for some reason despite my playing them.

I can see the peace keepers glowering at me so I shoot them a fake sweet smile and take my seat.

Baby Face is next. Okay I guess I shouldn't call him that. I do really like him after all. Well not like that.

* * *

"Cam Sheenan from district 4!"

Cam walks casually to the stage and sits down.

"Welcome Cam, how are you finding the capital?"

"Just fine, there is a lot to see and of course the food here is amazing!" he says pleasantly.

"Yes it is isn't it? So are you ready for the games to start?" Caesar asks.

"As ready as one can be I suppose, I guess it doesn't matter too much if we aren't does it." he adds cheekily. The crowd laughs.

"Right you are! With an 8 I am sure you are ready though." Caesar says confidently.

"Hopefully" Cam says.

"Okay so maybe you can give us more answers than your lovely district partner did?" Caesar asks hopefully. Oh crap. Hopefully he plays along and doesn't tell them anything.

"Well it's like she said, it's between us and that's all there is to say." Cam responds calmly.

"And did you guys know each other?"

"Well sorry but again you'll just have to wait and see" he finishes.

"Okay so who is rooting for you back home?" Caesar asks.

"Well my dad and brother, and a couple of friends." Cam responds.

"What about your mom?"

"Well she died when I was 10 so it's just been the three of us." Cam says quietly.

"Oh I am sorry to hear that. I wish you good luck getting home again!" Caesar finishes as the buzzer goes off.

After Cams interview I kind of blanked out on the next few. None of them stood out to me as ones to watch so they all kinda faded together.

I was brought back in when they got to district 7.

* * *

"And now welcome our next tribute, Melody Channing from district 7!"

The little girl walked on stage looking like innocence and sweetness personified. The crowd awes.

"Welcome! So how are you liking the capital Melody?" he asks gently.

"Well it's very big and colorful" she says brightly.

Caesar chuckles at the endearing girl. "That it is; that it is!"

"So how do you feel about the games?" he asks.

"I am pretty nervous I guess I don't want to die" she says looking at the ground. The crowd awes again.

"Well I am sure you have some skills to help you survive" he says encouragingly.

"I do know survival stuff, like berries and plants." she chirps.

"Tell us about your family, who is rooting for you?" Caesar asks

"Well there's my parents and 2 sisters, Mabel and Mackenzie, and my brother Mack, there's also my best friend Reilly." she says sweetly.

"Sounds like you have a lot of people wanting you back" he says

"Yeah, I just want to go home." she says sadly.

Fury at the capital burns through my body as I scowl and glare angrily at the injustice of this sweet girl being murdered for no reason. I hate them. The crowd is awwing again which just fucking annoys me even more. I just want to shout at them to fuck off they are the ones who want 12 year old kids killed. If they actually gave a crap they would demand the games be ended.

"Are you okay" asks Cam but I don't answer as I am too troubled to form words. I realize I am shaking in fury so I force myself to calm down and get over it for now.

I only remember brief flashes from the next couple of tributes. The boy from 7, Braxton seems more of a gentle giant than anything. I know the careers tried to recruit him but he turned them down. Smart guy. I like him already. The siblings from 8 both want to help their sibling go home. It is truly heart breaking. The crowd awws again to my disgust. As expected both from 9 are enigmatic. No one knows what to make of Nova, she is just odd and is always lost in her own little world. Then we have Rueben.

* * *

"Next up is Rueben Tahara from district 9!" Caesar exclaims.

It is truly a medical mystery how his vocal cords are still functioning from all the yelling and talking. The dark haired boy walks to the stage with a sly confident smile, like he knows something you don't. It is a look of superiority from someone who is playing you. I should know. It is the same look I had during my interview.

"Why hello there Caesar" he says mockingly but the crowd doesn't pick up on it.

"Hello there! We are glad to have you here!" he exclaims. Right cause he had a choice?

"Oh it is such an honor!" Rueben says sarcasm dripping from his words. Again the crowd does not pick it up. Rueben just has an amused glint in his eyes. He is enjoying playing these idiots. I was too.

"That is quite the scar you have there, mind telling us about it?" Caesar asks pointing at a scar on Rueben's cheek. "I don't think that would be a good idea," he says then adds scornfully "but perhaps it could be the next fashion trend."

The crowd immediately cheers and everyone makes a mental note to add "have a pointless expensive unnecessary surgery to add a fake scar on my body" on their 'to do' list.

"Indeed! I think I might get one myself! Then I could look like I was in the arena!" Caesar says excitedly.

The crowd just loves this idea; no doubt it will be the next biggest trend. This comment really gets under my skin for some reason. Playing make believe that they had been thrown in the arena. Just another way for them to become desensitized to the fact that REAL KIDS ARE DYING! No doubt none of these morons would last a second in there. Ha if they want to play hunger games I say let them in the real thing. Have an authentic experience. If the games are so great and honorable and the holy graily shit and everything why doesn't the capital join? I would love to see how they would cower from that idea.

"Well if I make it back I would be more than glad to give you an authentic scar Caesar." Rueben says politely but with hidden malice.

Shit Caesars reaction is so fucking priceless! I think a cross between a cross eyed dead fish, a screeching feral cat and a monkey being electrocuted is the most appropriate. Oh and if you poured burning acid on it. Yeah I think I might just like Rueben. I always knew I liked that guy.

"We'll see" says Caesar meekly. There is no doubt in my mind the second he is done with the interviews he is going straight to the head game makers and bribing them to make sure Rueben doesn't win.

"So tell us about your family!" Caesar asks.

"What's there to tell? They are just like anyone else's family." he says bored now.

"Oh come on there must be plenty interesting to share!" Caesar urges him.

"Not really, it doesn't matter now anyway, now I've been sentenced to death." he said accusingly.

I think the buzzer went off then to spare Caesar from having to answer that.

Up next was the other 12 year old from 10, Calla. Whereas Melody is sweet and adorable and innocent, Calla was dangerous. She was no innocent 12 year old. She had a malicious glare in her eyes, despite acting innocent. The boy from 10 was Zion, he was big and strong. He played up the brooding, silent and mysterious type but an almost psychotic gleam lurked in his eye. I don't remember the ones from 11 much. Zari was sweet and played up the nice mayor's daughter part. It wasn't really an act at all, that was just her personality. Which was one of the reasons I liked her. Then after the boy from 12 who didn't stand out much it was over and we are free to have our last night to ourselves. Or so I thought.

Apparently they are now throwing us a last minute dance tonight. Like everything else it is mandatory.

You can just kill me now. I wish they would. It would be much less painful than suffering through any more of this garbage.

With an annoyed groan I stand up and we all head out.


	14. A Very Dangerous Dance

**A Very Dangerous Danc****e**

Night 6 in the Capital

The Dance

* * *

_"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who __are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."_

-Albert Einstein

* * *

We are all marched into a fancy ballroom on the first floor of the training center still wearing our interview finery. The ballroom is huge and grand, with a sparkling chandelier hanging from the ceiling and a stage in the corner with some music group playing. There is a platform for dancing, with chairs lined up to sit along the wall. Of course there are tons of tables piled with the finest food. I just wish this was over as I am about done being paraded around. After the initial opening we are free to do what we want.

There are tons of important government officials, game makers and potential sponsors here. Somehow I am positive this wasn't so last minute, they just never bothered to let us know. Which would have been kind of considerate of them considering it is our last night of peace. The game makers and government officials keep their distance from the tributes as if we have infectious diseases or something. I guess even they don't want to mingle with the kids they will be brutally killing and torturing tomorrow. It might make us seem human.

Sashira and Finnick insist on introducing Cam and I to the many potential sponsors which I am just absolutely positively ecstatic about as you might imagine. Maybe I am being a brat but I don't really feel like schmoozing up to wealthy uptight capitalites that don't have a care in the world on my last night of freedom thank you very much. I mean they think this is all a game, how can they be so stupidly ignorant and oblivious to not see what they are doing? I don't think they are all _evil_ –though some are for sure- but they are all brainwashed into being mindless idiotic drones that can't think for themselves. Do they not see that we are real people?

I have never been so relieved in my life that I wasn't born in the capital or I might be the same although I would like to think I would be smart enough to not fall for it. I know they grow up with it and are told we are nethanderals and enjoy starving to death and being murdered for their entertainment but come on! Do they not have even two brain cells to rub together?

Innocent kids murdered = bad! Dead 12 years olds = bad! Families torn apart for no reason = bad!

It is not that difficult to comprehend is it?

It is not just the districts that are being controlled I realize, but the government has completely robbed an entire city of all moral judgment. Well I guess not quite all of them as people like Apollo exist and are certainly not like that but are powerless to do anything. Anyway back to these simply _delightful_ and _magnificent_ people who are absolutely not vain, pompous, arrogant, conceited or self-centered in any way! Good heavens no!

One of them was a tall man named Gharin who was rich and snotty, the kind who loves the games and sponsors for the "publicity" of choosing the victor. He was an entrepreneur whose latest project was apparently renovating the official hunger games museum. He had black hair and blue skin with lots of hunger game tattoos.

Then there was this vain youngish woman who would not stop talking about herself. Her name was Fuchsia and true to that she was exactly that color. Her skin, hair, eyes and dress were all fuchsia pink. She prattled on the whole time about how she just loved my outfits, how excited she was for the games, that she was planning to sponsor an exorbitant amount of money and host a fabulous party for the bloodbath tomorrow.

Another was a ratty old woman named Mathilda. She was very intrusive and kept asking rude personal questions. _How does it feel knowing you could die tomorrow? What are you doing this last night of freedom? Are you scared of facing the careers in the arena? You think it was a smart idea to not join them? Do you think you will regret it when they kill you? Are you guys together? You are being snobby by not answering!_

And worst of all was an older man named Fornay. He was middle aged, rather balding and chubby. He eyed me in a way that made me want to run out of the ballroom and drown myself in a river. He sponsored tributes for a different reason entirely, well only a certain type of tribute if my hunch is correct. Here allow me to recall our stirring conversation and you tell me:

"_Hello there Priya" he says. _

"_Hello" I say politely. _

"_You look quite ravishing tonight" he purrs putting his hand on my shoulder, then whispers in my ear, "I would love to sponsor a beautiful thing like yourself." _

_I take his hand away and step back slightly, my skin crawling, "Thank you, I should probably go now" _

"_Oh no, you can stay. In fact if you make it out I would love to be more intimate." he says. _

_He means buy my "services". No thanks. I would rather shoot myself in the head, gouge my eyes out, slice off my arm and hit myself with it and throw myself off a cliff than ever "service" him. _

"_Come with me, I know a private place where we can be alone." he suggests. _

"_I am afraid I can't and I really must go now" I say and walk away before he can stop me. _

So yeah I am not exactly in the best mood right now.

Eventually me and Cam are spared from talking to these _oh so generous_ sponsors and head towards the food tables and spend our time looking and tasting all of it. There are lots of deserts; cakes, pies, chocolate, puddings, candies, cookies and other things in every flavor imaginable. I notice a table piled high with little champagne glasses filled with an amber liquid near the bathroom and make the mistake of asking what they are. Some young random capitalite girl with green hair overhears and says in a shrill drunk voice, "those are so you can eat even more silly!" as she puts one in my hand and says knowingly "go to the bathroom first."

I put it together that it makes you throw up and immediately put it back as if it was on fire. How dare these people in the capital throw up on purpose just so they can stuff their faces more while whole districts starve to death! Does nobody see how wrong it is? I really am not enjoying the party that much suddenly so I sit in a chair glowering by myself wishing it was over already. Being in the arena fighting for my life sounds like a pretty vast improvement over this. To my dismay, just when I thought my mood couldn't get any worse Fusion of all people comes up to me with a malicious smirk.

"Wanna dance?" he asks as if making fun of me.

"Why don't you go bother someone who cares!" I hiss back viciously.

"Oh what, you can't tell me you don't think I'm attractive?" he pretends to be hurt.

"I wouldn't know, maybe if you wiped all that arrogance off your face" I say fake sweetly, "now go away before you end up like that dummy"

His face pales and he storms off. Oh yeah I'm good. I know, hold the applause.

* * *

After a while Cam finds me and asks me to dance and I agree because I need to do something to distract myself before I go crazy. I had never really danced with a boy before so it was kinda weird at first but we end up having a good time. It feels good to be held in his warm comforting arms, as if they can shield me from the reality of tomorrow. I am very glad to have Cam as my district partner as I have come to know he is a very good and caring person. I don't know how I never really noticed him before; we could have been good friends. I really don't want to think of him dying because he does not deserve it at all! We have been together through this whole horrible reality and I trust him implicitly. He has been the one thing about being reaped that doesn't make me actually want to gouge my eyes out and scream bloody murder. Rest assured we will remain friends and that is it.

I am startled when a tall muscular man in a black suit taps me on the shoulder and tells us to report to the training gym immediately. When we stand there stunned he barks "now!" so we start moving. As we move away I can't help but hear him saying into the phone, "you have the rebel ready? They are on the way."

What in the world is going on? Rebels in the capital? Who wants to meet us in the training gym?

We don't say a word as we take the elevator down.

We go into the training gym as we find it is unlocked. It is eerie and creepy and dark with no one around. I can see the many sharp blades glinting sinisterly. Way at the end of the room there is a single dim overhead light on so we go towards it. There are three people, the president and 2 of his cronies, standing over some _thing_- a person? I think with horror. But how can that _thing_ be a person? It is a mess of blood and flesh, with clumps of hair on it. This _thing_ is lying in a revolting pool of blood, vomit and urine judging by the smell. God please don't be a person. It has to be dead right? Oh my it opened its eyes, it is a freaking person they did this to! Is this the rebel they were talking of? The three of them are just standing over it smirking with utter glee. They see us and smirk again at our fear and horrified expressions.

"Ah yes district 4" the president says. We say nothing, having trouble taking our eyes off the person they practically liquefied.

"I feel it would be good to have a little chat after your little interview" he says looking at me in the eye. His eyes show absolutely nothing but a power hungry monster who doesn't give one damn about anyone. I feel like my knees have turned to jelly and I am going to collapse any second.

"You didn't like it?" I say finally. He looks at me coldly, "I will not tolerate you messing with our fun and games, try any more stunts and your precious family will be gone, especially that little sister of yours sky is it?"

I say nothing.

"There is a quell coming up after all and it might just be the perfect place for her don't you think?"

"No" I manage to say.

He smiles, "I thought not, don't try anything understood?"

"Yes Mr. President" I reply.

"You see what happens to those who try and stand up to us?" he nods at the rebel.

"Now go, after all you have a big day tomorrow" he says cruelly with a wicked smirk and they all laugh evilly as we leave.

We don't dare say a word as we go up to our rooms, not even remembering the party.


	15. Courage and Cowardice

**Courage and Cowardice **

Night 6 in the Capital

* * *

_"It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived."_

- Harper Lee, _To Kill a Mockingbird_, Ch. 11

* * *

I don't know what to do anymore.

For a long time I just sit on the couch like a corpse lost in my thoughts, trying to make sense of what happened in that training room. I am utterly and truly terrified now, in a way I have never been before. I can't believe the _president_ himself was just torturing the rebel like that. Who does something like that to another human being? I guess I should not be that surprised considering what I already knew of him and my previous opinion on the state of his humanity. Yet it still does.

And then he personally threatened me and my family and especially Sky. Again who would kill a 6 year old child for leverage? Nobody who should have an entire country at his command that's for sure. How can people allow that creep to have total control of Panem? He is a complete and total monster. Of course I knew that before but actually seeing that side of him is something else. I know one thing; there is no going back now.

No matter what me and my family will never be safe while he is president. There is no conceivable way I can just move on and pretend I don't know what goes on in the capital if I somehow manage to survive. Any last innocence I had disappeared in that training room, along with any last hope that the capital could ever be redeemed in my eyes. The whole country is so fucking screwed up, oppressive and despicable. I never really thought of Panem as despicable before but there is no doubt that is the first word that comes to mind now after everything I have seen in the capital.

How could I have been so clueless until now?

But the bigger question is where does that leave me? The games start in little more than 12 hours from now. It is not like I was planning to make a big rebellious antigovernment speech in the games or anything. So what can I do to not play the games? Well what do we need to do to play them? _Kill or be killed_. That's about it. Okay so if I don't kill or be killed myself…

I guess that's a plan, don't kill anyone and don't get killed. Simple and easy. I won't play.

I sigh knowing it will be anything but simple and easy. It is impossible of course, I am not stupid. I will have to do one or the other eventually, I know that as no one has ever won without at least one kill. Yet winning hardly seems like a desirable option now knowing he will own me and can kill my family at his whim. The games will never stop. Now that I know how truly evil he is I wish I could make a stand against him but how? Unfortunately for our dear president his little charade had the opposite effect he wanted. It only made me more willing to do something to spite him. But if I do he will hurt my family. Like he wouldn't anyway?

He couldn't do anything if the games ended and he wasn't in power anymore.

But what could a powerless 16 year old from district 4 do to stop the games and unseat the president? That's where I am at a loss. I know they would hide any rebellious words or actions from the districts; it has to be something they can't hide, lie about or cover up. So what can't they hide? _The finale._ What if I became the victor and did something….but what? What is the biggest form of rebellion possible that they won't be able to hide and keep secret? What would spur people to rebel?

For some reason the word suicide pops in my mind.

What if the victor killed themself on live TV? There would be nothing the capital could do and the whole of Panem would see. It could cause an immediate rebellion. Didn't they say there were already rebels in the capital? It is perfect a spark to light the fuse. But it is a crazy and insane idea. Who would _willingly_ commit suicide after fighting for your life just when you can finally go home? Someone insane that's for certain, or someone with nothing to lose. Would I do it? Could I do it?

What am I saying? Am I actually considering this? Who am I kidding with these sudden grand plans and conspiracy to ignite a rebellion? I am just some stupid powerless girl who thinks she can actually do something to stop the games. Yeah right. I am just deluded into thinking it is possible, that anything could ever change for the better. When it comes down to it I am nothing and will be dead soon right? Nobody will care or remember me in a month when I am just another dead tribute girl snuffed out by the capital. I can barely stand that thought, of dying without trying to change things or at least show they don't own me. Of just fading away as the games go on and on and on throughout the years, never changing and never ceasing.

Someone needs to put a stop to it.

Why shouldn't that someone be me?

* * *

I know I won't be able to sleep tonight. How can I knowing what tomorrow will bring? How can anyone when it's now less than 8 hours until we leave for the arena? I feel so smothered and trapped by time, like I am running out of air in my lungs as it slowly leaks out and all I can do is wait for it to run empty. I feel like I am screaming at the top of my lungs but nobody even looks up. I feel so weak and powerless and like I am suffocating in this dreaded room.

I quietly head to the elevator for some space and notice there is a rooftop to the building so I press the button for it. I can't help but wish I had found this sooner.

When the doors open I can see the city spread below with lights glittering like jewels against the night sky. It is certainly quite a nice sight if I do say so myself. The fresh air feels wonderful and I can finally breath freely again.

Many people are still out celebrating despite the late hour. After all it is a holiday for them, a holiday to celebrate our deaths. _How quaint._ I can just barely hear cheerful talking and screaming coming from the street. How can they act so casual about it? They, who never have to worry about anything, will never feel the pain of having a loved one ripped away for no reason. Never worry about dying as a teenager before your life can really begin. They can hold each other close with no fear of being torn apart by the reaping, never knowing how cruel the world is-how cruel they are.

_They will never die alone in an arena for people's entertainment. _

I walk over to the railing and peer over the edge at the long drop below. What if I just ended it now? Didn't play the games at all? As the night before there would be nothing they could do. I can't help but wonder what they would do in that situation, surely they would punish the other tributes or the family in some way. I can almost see the gamemakers frantically panicking over it and I let out a small snigger. I can't say it isn't tempting; it is _very_ tempting in fact.

But something holds me back.

I don't want to just give up, that's not like me. I have too much anger and pride to do such a cowardly thing. Besides they would no doubt just kill my family if I did that and it would not do anything to end the games. I will just have to battle on. If I did just jump they could just tell whatever lies they wanted and no one would know any better. That is one of the main problems of fighting the capital; they can just lie and people wouldn't have a clue. That's why my idea of the victor killing themselves is so ingenious and guaranteed to work if someone had the guile to do it. There is no way for them to hide it or stop it or cover it up, everyone would see.

"Not thinking of Jumping are you?"

I jump and turn around to see Cam walking over. I don't say anything as he joins me at the railing. He starts to look worried now so I smile, "Don't you worry I will be all fine and dandy and perfectly safe in the arena tomorrow."

He snorts, "Sure".

"Can't sleep either?" I ask.

"Not really"

"Yeah I know the feeling" I sigh.

I wonder if I should tell him my plan or not.

"What are you thinking about?" he asks.

I look around and whisper to him, "More about our conversation before, you know? Thinking of ways to end the games for good."

Cam looks slightly scared but determinedly, "Got any ideas?"

"Well they want us to kill or be killed right? So if we just don't do either we are not really playing the games?" I ask.

"They will make you do one or the other though" he says grimly.

"Yeah I know, but it's not like we can just get everyone to not kill each other can we?" I counter, "I wonder what they would do then?"

"Send some army of horrible man eating mutts?" he guesses.

"Yeah probably" I agree.

"What we really need is the final two to agree to a truce" he says.

"That would be great but good luck getting anyone else to agree with that!" I laugh imagining trying to convince a career to a truce in the final two. "Although if we are the final two let's do just that!" I say with a new sense of determination and he agrees.

"There is one other idea I had to stop the games" I say shyly. Cam looks at me with interest.

"Well what if the victor killed themself? Everyone would see it and it means the games failed" I ask cautiously.

"I don't know, it sounds pretty farfetched, I mean to do that?" he trails off. This was not quite the response I was hoping for, I am confident it would work! Why doesn't he agree? Does he just not like the idea? Do I just happen to understand the politics behind the games better?

"You guys shouldn't be talking about this"

We whip around to see a rather annoyed looking Finnick. There is some other deep rooted emotion lurking in his eyes as he looks at me strangely. Respect, shock, curiosity, admiration, hope, confusion, fear?

"You guys need to get to bed, now" he says and there is no question about arguing with him so we follow him to the elevators and down to our rooms.

I try to sleep, I really do but I just can't turn my mind off between contemplating everything that happened today and worrying about everything that will happen tomorrow. _What will the arena be like? Will I survive the bloodbath at least? Will my allies? Will we be able to find each other? Will I kill someone? Will I be able to do any sort of rebellion before dying?_

Tossing and turning in my bed I am filled with angst, dread, nausea, fear, apprehension and pure terror thinking tomorrow and the days to come; yet lurking somewhere deep within me is also just the smallest slightest bit of hope.

* * *

_Wish that I could cry_

_Fall upon my knees_

_Find a way to lie_

_About a home I'll never see_

-Superman


	16. A Bloodbath in the Name of Panem

**Hello my lovely readers! Here is the long awaited Bloodbath chapter! **

**I have been going back and adding little quotes and just cleaning the story up and it makes it so much more exciting now! **

**Anyway here we go...**

**A Bloodbath in the Name of Panem**

Day 1 in the Arena

The Bloodbath

* * *

_"Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it."_

-W. Somerset Maugham

* * *

_I am in the arena. The Careers are chasing me and catch me. They drag me back to the cornucopia where they have my allies all tied to trees. Then they tie me to one. "Ready to watch your little friends die pathetic girl" Aurora taunts. "No!" I shout and they all laugh. "Kill me instead" I say desperately. "Oh, we will don't worry. After you watch us kill them!" says Fusion as he smirks with glee at the sight of me. Then Aurora goes over to Zari and plunges her knife into her stomach and she cries in pain. She does it several more times, always avoiding fatal places until she gets bored and stabs her heart and the cannon sounds. I stare at her bloody body still tied to the tree in horror. Then Fusion walks over to Melody with his sword and in one powerful swing cuts her head off and it falls to the ground. "NOOOOOOOO" I scream tears flowing my face as the horrible image of her tiny headless body tied to the tree and her head rolling on the grass won't go away. Then he walks over to Cam and does the same to him. I moan and scream things that make no sense. I just want to die. "Your turn" he taunts standing right in front of me now. He swings the sword right for my neck and – _

I wake up thrashing wildly in my bed. My sheets are covered in sweat and my skin is so hot I feel like I am burning up. I am breathing heavily as if I had just run a marathon. After a moment I realize it was just a dream and the games haven't started yet. I look at the small clock by my bed; it is only 3:43 AM.

I go to the bathroom and use a towel to wipe my sweaty face. I look at my reflection in the mirror. My long dark hair is messy and wild, my skin is pale and clammy and my eyes are wide with fright like I have just seen a ghost. I can't help but let out a little desperate cry at how there is no more time left for me. I force myself to calm down and take a deep breath. I cannot go into the games like this; I have to get a handle on myself. I have allies, I am fast and a good climber, I can throw knives and I got an 11 in training. It will be okay for now.

A little while later Finnick comes in saying, "It's time to go now". It is all that needs to be said. I numbly get up and pull on a comfy loose sweatshirt and slippers. We will change when we get to the arena anyway so might as well be cozy until then. So it is all about to begin, all of our questions and doubts will be answered soon enough. I am actually _excited_ to go in a way now. I know, I know; who this girl? That was about the last thing you expected me to say. Well you see it is impossible for you to understand just how tedious these last few days have been; the reaping, the justice building, the train ride, arriving, the chariots, the training, the private sessions, the scores, the interviews, the dance. It seems so long ago since the reaping and I can hardly remember how it felt to not be bogged down with all these preparations. One way or another the games are my life now, as they are for the other 23 kids. It will be a relief to finally get this thing over with. At least it will get me away from the capital. Yeah just mutts, traps, exposure, natural disasters, gamemakers and 23 murderous teenagers to worry about; sounds like a picnic!

We are ushered to the roof where the rest of the tributes wait. I give Finnick and Mags a long hug. "Good luck and don't get killed" Finnick says as a hovercraft appears and one by one we are lifted on. A current freezes me when I grab the ladder so I can't move when they crudely and roughly inject the tracker deep in my forearm. We all sit in our places next to each other and it is rather painfully silent as we are all very anxious and lost in our own private thoughts. I wish I was anywhere in the world but here. All of my doubts come flooding to the surface. I am going into an arena that I most likely won't come out. _What if I die in the bloodbath? What if all my allies are killed? What if I can't get any supplies or weapons? What if the arena is some awful desert or tundra or god knows what else? _

I shake my head free from these thoughts and look around at the other tributes to see how they are coping. The careers are all grinning like it is Christmas morning, elated that the wait is over and they can finally start murdering innocent kids. I shudder at the thought of them ripping tributes apart like wrapping paper, which they look all too capable and prepared to do. A lot of the others look absolutely pale and terrified. Calla looks around fearfully but it doesn't seem to meet her eyes. Rueben looks calm and unaffected. Zion looks at the others with a psychotic little grin. Melody has her eyes closed tight. Zari is staring determinedly at the floor. Cam catches my eye and gives a nervous twitch of a smile. I can feel the boy from 5 nervously tapping his foot on the ground repeatedly. The little boy from 11 is in tears. Sooner than later we will all be gone…

After a while the windows black out so we can't see the arena. After a long wait we are led through an underground tunnel to our individual launch rooms. I am really relieved to see Apollo there and immediately hug him. In the room there is a small table with breakfast on it, a package with my arena outfit and of course the tube that will take me up into the hellhole. I eat what I can with my nauseous stomach, mainly just nibbling on a piece of toast. After all it wouldn't be good if I just vomited it all up now would it? I drink a glass of water, who knows when I will get water again? After all it could be the last thing I ever drink! I can feel myself shaking as I could very well be dead in _minutes_. Once again I shake these doubts from my mind. I can't think like that right now, I can't afford to.

At least it is not some little 12 year old here instead. Yeah i'll just think of that while I lie on the ground bleeding to death.

Apollo shows me the arena clothes this year. It consists of dark khaki pants, brown heavy hunting boots and thick socks, a dark blue cotton shirt with a 4 on the sleeve, a dark blue hoodless sweatshirt and a thin black windbreaker jacket. It also includes a scarf and pair of mittens that easily clip on to the pants. I wear no makeup and he pulls my hair back in a tight ponytail. He then helps me put the clothes on and hands me Sky's necklace. I put it on and tuck it under my sweatshirt, not wanting it to get ruined or caught on something.

Then a voice informs us that it is time to launch. I look desperately at Apollo.

"You will be okay, take it one day at a time in there. Follow your gut and come back. I am counting on it"

I nod and walk to the tube and get in. It is silent and very claustrophobic with nothing but my racing heart to focus on. 5-4-3-2-1

The tube starts rising and for a minute all I can see is complete darkness and then a bright white burning my eyelids. I quickly get used to it and gather that we are all placed in a large grassy field around the gleaming cornucopia, roughly the size of a football field. There are heavy woods circling the field on all sides and a multitude of snowy mountains, rocky caves and wide mountain valleys in the distance beyond the woods. I can make out a huge rock wall towering over the woods to my left. It must be at least 40 or 50 feet high. The sky is a gorgeous mix of blue and slight purples and pinks, as if from some made up fairytale world. I guess this is like a fairytale world in a way, completely made up at the gamemakers whim. Of course this place is no fairytale with a happy ending. I must admit the arena is a very beautiful place.

"Let the 72nd Annual Hunger Games begin!"

The countdown begins at 60 seconds so I hurriedly look around the cornucopia to see what supplies are around. It all looks so much bigger and more intimidating in person than it does on TV. I notice a vest of throwing knives about halfway between me and the cornucopia and a big black backpack a little further in. They are as good as mine! I am a very fast sprinter after all. **_45…44…43…42_**

I can see every weapon imaginable lying in or near the horn, including some spears and bows. I don't want to go for the center of it what with all those lovely dickheads running around. That would just be stupid to do. Speaking of them I should probably look to see where they and my allies are situated huh? **_30…29…28…27_**

I am between Rueben of all people and the girl from 6, Lyra. Rueben looks determinedly at the center of the cornucopia. No doubt he is planning to run away quickly after securing supplies and weapons before the careers notice. Melody is 4 tributes to my right and I can see her looking at me. Hopefully she runs off to the woods. **_21 20 19 18_**

I can't find any of my other allies at first, or the other careers for that matter. Wait now I can just make out Aurora on the opposite side. She is just to the left of the cornucopia before it blocks my view. Then I can see Gemcity two tributes over from her. _**12 11 10 9**_

I see Zari's blonde head peaking behind the right side of the Cornucopia. I can't find Cam or Fusion so they must be blocked from view, which means they are very close together behind the cornucopia. **_4 3 2 1_**

The gong rings out and I am sprinting as fast as I can towards the vest of knives and snatch it up. I reach the backpack at the same time as the boy from district 6 and we both try to shove it out of the others hand. I don't have time to try and get a knife loose so knowing I had to do something quick I kick him hard in the stomach and he falls backwards. I spot a large steel hunting knife lying nearby on the ground so I pick it up quickly and look around.

The boy I kicked is still lying on the ground dazed. I debate whether to go slam the knife in his heart like I did to the dummy in the private session but decide not to. After all I am not going to abandon my beliefs the second I enter the arena. The district 3 pair are fighting off the 12 year old from 10. Then she changes course and throws a knife at some girl-I can't tell who, hitting her in the arm but she runs out of range. Aurora throws a knife into the neck of the boy from 5. I look away as he falls to the ground, the blood pouring from his neck like a stuck pig.

"DUCK!" yells a voice and I turn to see a knife flying at my head, courtesy of the district 10 boy Zion. I duck just in time and see that it was Rueben who shouted the warning and he now dashes off to the woods with a backpack and sword. That was close.

I look around to see if I can spot my allies but I can't make them out in the chaos.

The bloodbath is in full swing. Screams and shouts pierce the air. Clashing of metal is heard as children lay dying alone on the ground. This must be what war is like. Everything is a whirlwind of limbs, blood and metal flying around the battlefield. There are no words to describe how utterly horrifying this scene is. If I had had any doubts about how horrific it would be in the arena watching kids get slaughtered they are answered. Any last doubt I had to try and end the games vanished as I stand here in the middle of the carnage observing teenagers killing each other.

This was so wrong.

I see the boy from 12 get impaled by a sword and the district 11 girl dashing away to safety. Then I see Fusion going after the girl from 8, Aspen. Raiden shoots an arrow at him and somehow they both manage to escape as Fusion sees me. I immediately high tail it for the woods and briefly knock into the girl from 5 as I scramble away. Luckily I was quite a distance away and easily outdistance him so he has no choice but to watch me leave. I clear the trees and look back to see if anyone was following me. No one was so I try to glimpse my allies.

I spot Melody running for the woods about 40 yards to my right. I watch as Gemcity chases after her, readying a spear. Then a large guy, who I recognize as her district partner rams into him before he can throw it. Relieved that Melody is now safe I watch in horror as Gem stabs Braxton in the neck with it before he can get away. I run off to find Mel and it doesn't take long before I spot her up ahead. I am still a ways behind her and don't risk calling out. I quickly up my pace and when I reach her she jumps in terror before realizing that it's only me. She gives a huge sigh of relief. There is still no sign of what happened to Cam or Zari.

I hear a rustle from behind a bush so I raise my knife preparing to strike. I see the 11 girl crouched terrified at the sight of me, weaponless. For a long moment I hold my stance, my knife raised above her ready to kill the threat. Then I seem to come to my senses and we just walk away quickly.

"How will we find them?" she asks.

"I don't know but we need to find a safe spot and hopefully a water source tonight, we will find them tomorrow" I tell her.

After walking for about a half hour we come to a small clearing with a river passing through it. I am already looking through my backpack for the first time, hoping there is something to carry water in. I see that grabbing the backpack was a great choice as it holds an empty flask, a sleeping bag, a big warm water resistant jacket, iodine, matches, night vision glasses, a small first aid pack and a couple servings of crackers and dried meat. It is then I realize that I don't have my vest of knives anymore, only the large hunting one. _They must have fallen when I ran into the girl from 5 and I was too busy running away I didn't even notice! _

While it sucks it's not the end of the world.

I am already taking out my empty flask when we hear voices. Apparently we are not the only ones who found the riverbank. Now pulling out my knife I force Melody behind me. As we creep closer I recognize the voices saying, "Where are they? How will we find them now?" and another responds, "I don't know, but they can't be dead they just can't!"

Relief floods my body as we see them, Cam and Zari. They look a little worse for wear, both with wounds. Cam has a strip of fabric over his bleeding forearm and Zari has a deep cut on her cheek and a gash on her leg. Now they see us and we all hug in relief. They managed to grab two backpacks and a loaf of bread. I want to ask what happened to them but now is not the time. I fill my flask and put it in my backpack and we head out going as fast as we can to get as far away from the cornucopia as possible. We don't say a word, just silently willing to get as much distance between us and the careers as we can now. After about two hours we take a break behind a large tree.

"Where should we go, what's the safest spot" Zari asks.

I look around thinking furiously to find the best option. It is better to get to high ground so we each take a small sip of water and keep walking. After another hour or so we pass over to the nearest valley to find a cave. It is a difficult 30 minute uphill hike through the mountainous terrain until we get to the valley and we notice it is much chillier here. We come upon a beautiful pond surrounded by aspen trees and snowcapped mountains that reflect in the clear blue water. It is deathly quiet here and almost seems too serene and perfect. In fact I can feel my back tingling with unease as there is not one animal in the vicinity. I can't get past the feeling it is way creepy, that the lake is too perfect.

We pass by it as we have water for now but at least it is nice to know there is some close by.

That is if the lake is not some horrible deadly trap of those charming gamemakers.

Let the games begin...


	17. Riddles and a Madhouse

**Riddles and a Madhouse**

_Post Bloodbath Part 1_

* * *

_"Oh, who am I trying to kid? It's a madhouse. _

_The minute those cameras go off, things just explode, _

_everyone is just at each other in one way or another, in closets or cat fights here and there. _

_It's nuts. You know, I can't be a part of it."_

_-_Richard Dean Anderson

* * *

The four of us trudge past the lake and out of the little wooded area, now finding ourselves in the middle of a secluded mountain valley. Gentile hills roll around us, filled with leafy prairie grass and wildflowers. We are totally secluded from the main wooded area now, and by the looks of it there are dozens of these valleys so we feel pretty safe at the moment.

We are following a small dirt path towards the range of caves that are built into the mountain side. I can see the snowcapped mountain peaks thrust high in the sky and discern that avalanches will no doubt be happening at some point in the games. The valleys seem to be safest hiding areas but have their own hidden dangers. Suddenly the cannons start sounding making us all pause. Six of them.

Now I can't stop from thinking of the bloodbath and how much worse it was in person; watching kids torn down only feet away from you, hearing the screams and sounds of blades ripping into flesh, seeing blood spray across the grassy field and kids desperately grabbing for weapons and supplies like it was a war. In a way it is just that- a war. A war where the only prize is to be the only one left alive among all of the death and destruction.

I can't even imagine how much survivor's guilt the victors go through. What would it like to be the last one standing, knowing all 23 of them were dead and you get to just go home? It sounds pretty horrible actually, well not the going home part-I think most everyone except the careers and psychos just wish to go home. But how can victors just get over everything they saw and no doubt did in the arena? Pretend it never happened? They are forced to mentor and live, eat and sleep every second of the games no matter what. The capital owns them.

I think they are the only true losers of the games. Everyone else is beyond the capitals reach now.

"What is that thing?' Melody asks suddenly, bringing me out of my thoughts as I look in the direction she is pointing. Sure enough there seems to be some huge dark shape a ways away. I can tell it is some kind of building or structure but it is quite far away and slightly obscured by hills so it is impossible to tell any more. I can see Melody bursting with youthful excitement to explore.

I think over the pros and cons of taking a detour from our plan to check it out. It could be a trap that leaves us worse off than before. It could be nothing at all and we would waste time and energy. Other tributes could find us easily as it is like a beacon to draw people over. On the more optimistic side it could hold food, weapons or other useful things. It would provide shelter but we don't really need shelter at the moment and staying there overnight would be idiotic as it is the first place any curious or murderous tributes will look.

There is no harm is just going closer to get a better idea of what the strange building is in the first place. The point is we will be here until we die or are the last one left so might as well just find out what we will be facing. Besides I am pretty curious as to what it is now. We change our course and head towards the building. It takes a good 20 minutes to reach it and it is beginning to be dusk out now. The sky is even more colorful, spectacular and breathtaking as the fake sun makes its way to the horizon between two picturesque snowcapped mountains. Rich and luscious purples and pinks and oranges blend together into swirling clouds around the lazy sun. The gamemakers are really treating us this year.

As the shadows grow around us we approach the building finally. It is a small wooden cabin home, complete with a picnic table in the front and a fire pit and chairs by the side. A tire swing hangs off a nearby tree as if a family had really lived here. We can't make out anything through the windows as they were either shut, at an impossible angle to see or so covered with grime we couldn't see anything.

"Come on, they want us to look in it!" Melody encourages as we all halt by the door deciding whether to proceed or not. It certainly could have a lot of valuable things. It could also be a trap and other tributes will make a beeline for it.

"Okay let's look around quickly, but we can't stay here" I decide.

We cautiously open the creaky door and look around. We are now standing in what must be the kitchen area as we see an old fashioned wooden stove, an old sink, a small pantry and a little wooden table and chairs. I set my backpack down as it was getting really heavy and I had been carrying it and hiking for several hours.

At once we all scour the room looking for any supplies that we can use, like food or knives. It is completely bare though. There is no cutlery to be found at all, the sink has to be filled with water manually and there are only a few empty bottles that probably once held herbs in the pantry. So much for that. We know nobody else had been here yet so obviously the purpose of this cabin was not for us to find supplies.

Growing bored of the kitchen we continue to look around, passing through a hallway with a long mirror on the wall into a sitting room. Along the wall we can make out shapes mounted like hunters display animal heads. Once we get closer I back away and almost throw up in revulsion. Why would I do such a thing you ask?

_Because they are the heads of the tributes that died in the bloodbath!_

I can feel my breath getting choked up in my throat but I can't force myself to look away from this appalling thing the gamemakers did. The six heads are just grotesquely mounted on the wall like animal heads, and their dead eyes stare at us accusingly. Is that what they will do with every tribute when they die, cut off the head and stick it on the wall? How much more sadistic can they get? Is it not enough to murder us but they also feel the need to chop our bodies up so disrespectfully? Aren't they supposed to send our bodies back to be buried? Do they just sew all the heads back on when this is over? It is plain to see that these six are the start of a line and as more and more tributes die they will follow the long wall of the hallway. I notice each has a plaque placed below it and I read the one below the sixth head; Melody's district partner who saved her in the bloodbath.

_Braxton Thomas_

_Proud Trophy of Gemcity Night_

I have no desire to look at the others. I just need to get away from this wall of nightmares. I know this image will haunt me until I die. My allies are all looking disgusted and like they want to hurl and like me they are all too horrified to talk. Turning away from the wall I look out the window to make sure no other tributes are sneaking up on us. However it is too dark to see much outside. It is getting pretty dark and shadowy in the cabin as well I notice. At least if someone does come into our valley they won't be able to see the cabin in the dark.

In the sitting room there are a couple of simple chairs and a larger armchair, along with a small table with some books and a newspaper on it. A tiny TV sits in the corner but doesn't work when we try to turn it on. An old radio and sewing basket are also present. Cam turns on the radio and some weird sounding song is playing through the crackling device. For some reason that I have no idea why, it reminds me of something that would be from district 10. Not that I have ever gone to 10 or have a single idea what music they listen to if they do at all; like I said it makes no sense! It reminds me of farmers and cowboys I guess.

You can practically sense the hypothetical family that would live here. On Sundays the dad would read the newspaper in the morning and sit in the armchair watching TV, the mom would make a delicious breakfast and sew in her spare time and the kids would cause trouble and play the radio too loud. _Oh yeah, they also cut off innocent children's heads and stick them on the wall in the living room. _Besides that it is kind of sad in a way that nobody will ever get the chance to live here and relax. If it wasn't an arena it would be a pretty perfect place; quiet and simple and close to nature, what more could you ask for? I guess once the games are over this cabin will become a resort for capital vacationers so I guess some people _will_ enjoy it. This of course makes me bitter at the thought since I doubt any of them could ever appreciate it like I do.

I absentmindedly pick over the books on the table, noticing they were old and I had never heard of them before. But then I catch sight of the old newspaper and see it is called _The_ _Hunger Games Inquirer. _The faded words are just able to be made out in the dim light:

* * *

_There is a fabled story concerning 24 brave warriors and a haunted cabin. __It is said that for whoever finds it will gain access to the All Seeing Eye, a place where the dead keep an eye on the living. __However first such a warrior must prove themselves worthy of this bequest, else risk becoming one of the dead that haunts this sacred place themselves. __And so they must complete this riddle:_

_I am always around, but never seen. __You may cheat and avoid me, but can never out run me. _

_T__here is no telling when or where we will meet. __But in the end I will always find you; for I am everyone's final fate._

_So answer me this and you will find, the line between the living and dead. __At times things are better left unsaid so venture carefully as one wrong guess will get you a one way ticket to hell. __But if you should succeed in this quest, you might just have discovered a path to the final fight._

* * *

I look up with this really bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. _This is just great! _Of course it has to be a stupid freaking trap; I knew we should have stayed away. Now however we will need to solve this gamemaker ploy as I _really_ don't like the sound of the words _a one way ticket to hell _one bit. I have absolutely no desire to find out what they mean by that. They wouldn't just off an entire alliance the first night would they?

It is too dark to read it anymore when a light turns on of its own accord. So great now we not only have to solve the riddle but the cabin is now shining like a beacon in the darkness saying; _free for all! There are tributes here come kill them! _I swear the careers better not be nearby. At least I can read it though.

"Hey guys, look at this" I say and they all gather around.

I read it aloud to them trying to keep a steady voice. We are all silent for a bit looking uneasy and thinking of the message. It sounds like we need to solve the riddle that will give us something to help us survive. If we get it wrong then we die. No pressure.

"Guess we need to solve it." Cam says and we agree.

_I am always around, but never seen._

Air? Wind? An emotion? A spy?

_You may cheat and avoid me, but can never out run me. _

The capital? That would be just like them. Something tells me that is not the answer though.

_There is no telling when or where we will meet. _

Hmmm no clue, something you can "meet" anywhere at any time… so it is sudden?

_But in the end I will always find you; for I am everyone's final fate._

That sounds rather ominous? Something that happens to everyone in the end?

"What do you guys think?" asks Zari.

"I don't know," says Cam frustrated trying to puzzle it out, "Something you can't out run; can't get away from no matter what…" he mutters to himself.

I look at my three allies and they all look just as confused as I do. Melody especially looks really worried as we realize the danger of the games instead of pretty much just hiking and exploring the beautiful scenery after a fruitful bloodbath. I pass them the paper so they can read it for themselves. _What if we can't solve it?_ _Okay come on Priya think, what does it mean?_ We are smart and can figure it out. We will not be outsmarted by the gamemakers.

I find that the last three words of the riddle keep echoing in my head in a fevered chorus.

_Everyone's final fate. Everyone's final fate. Everyone's final fate. Everyone's final fate._

I just _know_ that this part holds the answer to solving the riddle. Okay so what is everyone's final fate?

Then it all makes sense.

"I know" I say and they all look at me surprised. I steel myself before saying it.

"Death"

They all grimace and I very much agree. It's certainly not a pleasant riddle, especially for tributes in the hunger games that have to contemplate their probable imminent death and are so surrounded by it. Oh who cares, it is just silly, illogical and rather stupid to get worked up over some riddle because the answer is death isn't it? It just makes us look feeble and pathetic getting agitated with the idea like that so easily. It is not as though we are unaware or ignorant of our own mortality-we are very _painfully_ aware of that and I don't think any of us could forget it if we tried. I really long to be able to take a break from all of this crap and just forget everything in here-even if just for a moment.

Okay so did it even work?

There is a sudden commotion in the room as a deep rumbling shakes the cabin. My vision is trembling and I can't really see what is going on. A loud bone rending crack seems to rip right through the air, sending shivers down my spine. I can practically feel the change in the air as something is happening. By this point the whole room is filled with dust and particles which cloud my vision making it impossible to see what had just occurred. The shaking comes to a rather abrupt halt and we look around as the dust and particles settle.

A huge hole had been ripped into the wall, creating a dark tunnel that led to god only knows where. It was made of plain greyish stone and I could tell that the passageway sloped downward beneath the earth's surface. The haunting words of the message come back to me…_a place where the dead keep an eye on the living…else risk becoming one of the dead that haunts this sacred place themselves...you will find the line between the living and dead._ What the hell is down there? Ghosts? Zombies? I am really not comfortable with all of those oh so subtle little hints about the dead. It is really creeping me out right about now. This just kept getting better and better. Not that I have anything against the dead or anything.

I think anyone would be perfectly creeped out if they were in this position so don't judge me.

None of us wants to enter it.

And here we could have been just safely making camp in a cave, but no we just had to explore and stumble upon this freaking elaborate trap. It is only the first night so usually everyone just makes camp and nothing that exciting happens after the bloodbath except determining each tributes situation and the amount of supplies they have. I certainly didn't expect anything this complex to happen so soon. I realize with a start that we are most certainly on live TV right now and I am sure we have been since we spotted the cabin. I almost forgot we were being watched by everyone the whole time. I doubt any other tributes are doing something as interesting as this, except for maybe the careers hunting, I suppose.

"I guess we should go" I tell my nervous looking allies. I pick up my backpack, not wanting to leave my dear precious supplies here unguarded and just asking to be stolen by a lucky tribute. Besides who knows what is down there and when I would be able to come back for them. I pull out my knife as we all prepare ourselves to battle with the unknown. My heart is racing with nerves and anticipation. I _really_ don't want to but figure I should go first since I figured out the riddle and am the unofficial leader of our alliance. Besides I don't think anyone else is about to go first at the moment. _What is waiting for us?_ Whatever it is better watch out because ready or not we are coming.

And this shall be quite the show…

We exchange one last look and I step into the dark tunnel with my large knife in hand fully ready to fight off whatever demons we will face.

It doesn't take long until we lose the light from the room and are consumed by the endless darkness. I remember my night vision glasses and put them on. None of the others have them so they are basically blind. I can hear Melody whimpering.

"It's okay, just keep walking" I call to them.

I don't see anything ahead so we keep walking and walking for what feels like hours with no change. The tunnel slopes gradually downward and it gets colder the further we walk. It is obvious by the musty and earthy smell that we must be pretty deep in the ground by now. _Just how deep does this go? Is there any chance of getting out of here? _I can suddenly pick up the faint sound of whispering coming from whatever is down there. It sends shivers down my spine and I want to run back but know it is useless, we have to face whatever is down here. I just hope there is some light.

"What's that?" asks Zari sounding scared.

"Get your weapons out if you have any" I order them.

Suddenly a faint red light becomes visible in the distance. The whispering is coming from in there. As it gets louder the whispering is eerie and unnerving. It sounds not human almost. Like ghosts. This makes me gulp remembering all that stuff about the line between the living and the dead. Still it does not prepare us for what we find. The flickering red glow is coming from a room at the end of the tunnel. This is the only room that we have come across. There is no door, just a wide open archway that is covered with glowing red jewels that emit a strong eerie reddish light.

It is like entering hell.

Upon entering we find it is an enormous cavern with many tall columns around the edges. Red lanterns hang high from the top of the columns. There is a small lake with gently glowing reddish water on the far side.

But the true discovery is the 10 or so figures standing before us, all chatting merrily and whispering together.

The most disconcerting thing is their identities. They are all easily recognizable as dead tributes from recent games.

They are the ghosts of tributes past.


	18. Escape from Hell

**Escape from Hell**

_Post Bloodbath Part 2_

* * *

_"Hell isn't merely paved with good intentions; __it's walled and roofed with them. Yes, and furnished too."_

-Aldous Huxley

* * *

This is like something straight out of a nightmare.

It is real isn't it? Not a dream or my imagination? I am not going crazy and seeing things that aren't there?

I know I am not, and it is not.

We stand here just watching the scene for a moment, before the ghosts notice us. Each of them seem to lightly glow with a pale silver sheen, looking eerie and with a wild and almost sinister look to them. You could tell that despite appearing solid there was something different about them, a sort of airiness and weightlessness in their movements that no living human could have.

"Well well who do we have here?" said one of them coming up to us, speaking in a chilling voice. It was a girl, about 15 years old. Her name had been Remorah and she was in the games last year. Her long brown hair eerily blows around her thin face and her ice blue eyes are pale and hard as she fixes her haunting gaze on us. She wears a loose white cotton dress on her skinny frame that adds to her ghostly appearance.

"I asked who are you?" she says again with an edge in her voice.

"Um, I am Priya, this is Cam, Zari and Melody" I say cautiously.

"You're tributes?" she inquires.

"Yes, you have something that could help us?" I now ask boldly remembering the riddle; _But if you should succeed in this quest, you might just have discovered a path to the final fight._

She looks at me for a minute. I remember her from the games. She was from district 5 and had allied with her district partner and they became close. Too close. The careers had found them and her district partner was killed protecting her. The guilt had turned her kind of insane and she had a huge melt down. She walked around like a zombie looking for the boy, not believing he was dead. She had found the careers eventually and they surrounded her. She demanded to know where her district partner was, thinking they had him. When they taunted her that he was dead she lashed out and killed the district 2 girl before the boy from 1 stabbed her several times and they left her bleeding to death on the ground. She was sobbing on the ground moaning "he's dead" over and over again as she died.

"Yes, we do. Come with me." she says simply and walks further into the cavern. We obey and follow her. The rest of the ghosts stay put and observe us with interest.

"We can see everything that goes on here, and will show you" she says in an almost inhuman voice.

The wall now projects the image of the careers by the cornucopia. They look like they are discussing what to do. We can see it is completely dark out now.

My backpack is getting heavy so I put it on the ground against the wall as we all watch the screen like kids at a sleepover just having fun watching a movie.

"Let's hunt" Fusion is saying to the others.

"Yes! Let's go" exclaims Aurora, "we need to find that alliance with district 4."

They all grab their weapons and Fusion turns to the pair from one, "One of you needs to stand guard after 9 ran off" he orders.

Satin and Gem don't look happy with this and start to argue.

"Both of you stay!" Fusion orders angrily after a minute of protests and the pair from two head off alone.

"I can't believe that we have only 4 careers this year, and two are those idiots" Aurora is saying.

"Yeah I know" growls Fusion, "I can't wait to wring Satins pretty little neck eventually." Aurora giggles, "So where should we look, where is the alliance you think?"

"Who cares we will just keep looking until we find them" says Fusion. The camera then goes back to Satin and Gem.

"So how long do you think before they try and kill us?" Satin asks casually.

"It's only the first night, so a week at least, don't worry I won't let them kill you" replies Gem.

"Oh like I need you to protect me?" Satin says bashing her eyes.

"You know it!" he responds flicking her hair flirtatiously.

Suddenly the girl from 3 runs around the back of the cornucopia and grabs a backpack.

They notice and start running after her. Gem shoots an arrow but misses and Satin lands a knife in her leg but she gets away.

"Crap!" screams Gem running after her.

"Come on let's just go back" says Satin huffing behind him. Then a cannon fire makes them look up nervously.

"Guess they found someone, we can't tell them we let her steal supplies!" says Gem.

The screen then flashes to Rueben who is making camp in an empty cave on the opposite side of the arena as us. Nothing exciting happens so it goes to the pair from 11. They are both sitting in a tree. The little boy, Piper is scared as is the girl Bryony. They seem to hear something. It is the careers who come rushing up to them out of nowhere.

"Yes we got two!" Aurora exclaims earnestly.

The careers start climbing up and soon get the boy down. The girl manages to get high enough so they can't reach her.

"Oh look a pathetic little kid, how fun! I wonder how much you will cry!" Fusion taunts pinning the boy down. He grabs his sword and holds it above the boy, who is now bawling. He plunges it into his chest and the cannon fires. They try to find the girl but she had jumped to another tree and got away.

It switches again, this time to the siblings of 8. They are camped in a little ravine behind a huge rock in the woods. They are eating some food they must have gotten from a pack. They both look solemn.

"It was horrible wasn't it? asks Aspen, "all those kids dying" she adds tearfully.

"Yeah, try to not think about it." Raiden tells her.

"I can't help it Rai, I don't want you to die!" she cries.

"Don't worry, we are safe for now okay," he tells her. A cannon sound makes them look up fearfully.

"Who was that for?" Aspen whispers.

"We will find out later who all died, why don't you get some sleep?" he offers. She does and soon the camera changes again.

It picks up the district 3 pair and the 5 girl on the side of the woods near the bottom of the massive 40 foot high rock wall.

They are all congratulating the 3 girl on stealing supplies from the career camp.

"I can't believe I got away!" Ampere is saying.

"What did you get?" asks the 5 girl Tesla eagerly. They look to find a bunch of food and a few survival supplies, including some wire.

"This will be perfect to set up our trap!" exclaims Ampere.

"When are we going to do it?" asks Hertz.

"We can explore and look for a good place tomorrow" Ampere decides, "but I am thinking in the woods somewhere." They all agree with that idea.

Apparently that is all the information we will get as the screen goes blank. Remorah comes over, "did you find that instructive?"

"Yes, thank you for sharing that with us" I tell her. While it was interesting to watch the other tributes I can't say that I really learned a whole lot.

"Oh it is my pleasure!" she says with a sinister smile and I suddenly get a very bad feeling from her expression. The others ghosts have slowly surrounded us in a wide semicircle. I grip my knife tightly, giving my allies a look that says to do the same.

Suddenly with a loud crash the opening to the tunnel is slammed shut. We all jump and the ghosts giggle at us.

"Looks like we will have more company!" Remorah exclaims to the others gleefully.

"This will be fun!" says the ghost of a boy from three games ago. He was named Miles and was killed in the bloodbath. He was from district 8.

"Four at once! More than we could have hoped for!" says a ghost of a tall pretty girl with blonde hair. She was a career from last year's games named Jade who had made it to the final 4 before being killed by her district partner. My allies and I have all instinctively grouped together with our backs facing each other.

"You're going to trap us here?" I accuse and they laugh.

"Oh come on we are not that bad!" Remorah giggles.

"Let us out!" I tell her knowing it won't work. I don't know what the hell else to do though. We are trapped.

"No way! We are going to use your lives for us to come alive again!" she giggles again. _Oh god is she psycho or something?_

"You see over there we can take your life for ourselves! Then we can have a chance to win the games and be alive again!" she tells us pointing to a contraption near the lake. It looks like a chair with wires and cables attached to it. Now I have a terrible feeling about this. They can't actually do this can they? They don't seem to have any weapons but it is not like they need any to be intimidating. By now we start running toward the entrance. They laugh and let us go. We find the door is blocked by some huge expanse of rock. We desperately bang on it to no avail. Now we are freaking out all right. The ghosts are approaching us.

"Time to die! Whose life should I pick?" Remorah asks looking at us in turn.

Her gaze stops on me as she looks me in the eye, "I pick the bratty leader!" she exclaims lunging at me.

I jump back and we circle each other for a minute before she dives for me again. She grabs my hair and starts pushing me down but I kick her stomach hard and she stumbles back. She growls at me and in the background I see Cam fighting 3 ghosts, Zari and Melody back to back holding off 3 more and the last 3 coming to help Remorah. 4 to 1 is not going to work in my favor so I sprint away from the door. I head towards where the screen on the wall was as Remorah advances and the other 3 are following. She grabs my shoulders and slams me hard against the wall, I can hear the sound of something breaking as I slide to the floor in pain. I can feel a cool sensation on the back of my throbbing head and know it is bleeding. I stumble up feeling dizzy and look at the door again to see not much has changed.

One of the other ghosts I don't recognize makes to grab me so I throw my knife at him and it slams into his heart but it doesn't make any impact on it whatsoever. The ghost grabs me in my stunned surprise and pushes me against the basin that holds the lake of red water. I can almost hear the lake _sizzling_ slightly now that I am so close. It pulls the knife out of its chest and holds it to my throat as Remorah and the others come near. I struggle to get free and manage to grab the hand holding the knife and pull it at an unnatural angle. The ghost looks mad but not in pain as the knife falls to the floor. I dart out of its grasp but it tries to pull me back and we are locked in a violent shoving match with me trying to get clear and the ghost trying to grab me. Finally I manage to shove it in such a way that it falls over the ledge and into the lake. The ghost immediately burns and disintegrates into nothingness. I am shocked, it is just _gone_. Then I break into a smile realizing it is the only way to get rid of them!

"Throw them in the lake!" I shout pointedly to my allies.

Remorah and the other ghosts had looked terrified at what had happened to the one that fell in the lake. I guess the gamemakers never bothered to tell them they could so easily be disposed of. Anyway they are all advancing on me now so I jump up onto the 3 foot stone edge of the basin and run past them. It is only a couple inches wide so I need to be really careful not to fall in. Good thing I have good balance from working on the boats.

They hiss and follow me on the ground.

Two of them catch up to me as I am about to reach the wall. I jump over them, smacking them to the ground and landing in a clumsy roll. I see my allies trying to lead the other ghosts near the lake. I need to get them all to fall in the lake but how? I decide to take the offensive route for once and tackle one of the ghosts and get it near the basin when two others grab me from behind. I kick at them but they avoid it. I desperately leap away and shove another one to the side. I can see the stone ledge of the basin continues along the back of the lake along the wall so I clamber up and run along it. Now I am surrounded by the stone wall on one side and the lake on the other. The path is a little wider against the wall and the ghosts can't get me unless they follow me on the ledge. It would be easy to push them in. Three of them do.

I spot a small hole in the wall and scramble into it as it is about three feet above the ledge. It is actually another dark passageway. It doesn't take long for the first ghost to reach for me so I send a good kick at its head and it falls back and almost goes into the lake. However it barely grasps the edge of the walkway, dangling just over the lake. I can see it looking horrified. One of the other ghost goes to help it up while the other one tries to grab me. I manage to shove it backwards and it falls right into the ghost who is now pulling the other one up; creating a chain reaction and causing all three of them to tumble into the lake.

I hear Remorah cry out in anger and frustration. Four of them are gone now and I take a look to see what's happening. I see two of them dragging Zari to the lake just as Cam throws another one in a few feet away. One of the ghosts is attacking Melody and dragging her over now so Cam goes to shove him off. I fly down the walkway approaching the one about to throw Zari in. Not knowing what else to do to stop it in time I kick Zari hard in the shoulder throwing them both back and away from the lake.

"Forget the others, get her!" Remorah cries pointing to me.

The 5 remaining ones do just that. They drop their attacks on the others and advance on me. I jump down from the edge of the lake and head towards the wall on the other side. The ghosts are not letting me get away this time and tackle me to the ground like a pack of wolves. They start dragging me towards the chair now and this time I have no way to get away. There are just too many of them. I struggle and kick but it does no good. Remorah is giggling again with delight.

"NO YOU BITCH" I shout at her as we are almost at the chair now, "Are you insane! Do you really think they would actually let you win? You're just a stupid pawn for them to use and throw away!"

"Haha time for you to die girl!"

They try to force me down on the chair and I grab the sides and lock my arms out desperately. One of them easily kicks out my arm and I fall backwards onto the seat of the chair. Now at this moment I am positive I am going to die right here, right now. I will have my life sucked out by some stupid ghost. On the first day too no less, because we just had to explore the cabin. God how stupid and embarrassing is that? Yes I am seconds away from dying and my only thought is of how it is embarrassing. Is that normal? I should be terrified but all I can think is that this is such a stupid way to die. I feel like an idiot.

I guess there will be no match up with the careers. _How sad._

But then some hands appear out of nowhere and pull the two pinning me down off of me. Cam and Zari then force them to the lake and get rid of them. I don't see any more ghosts around so I guess we had gotten rid of them all somehow. It seems Melody was briefly unconscious after a ghost had slammed her head into the floor. She was alright now though. I realize I am breathing heavily and shaking slightly, still being really agitated from the encounter. I want to just run away as fast as I can from this place and for some reason I feel an inexplicable urge to violently pull at my hair to let out my frustration. I stand up and take a moment to compose myself before I have a mental breakdown and do anything that betrays how feeble and how freaked out I am right now. My allies know better than to ask me if I am okay.

"Thanks" I say after a minute when I feel ready to move on and they nod, "now let's get the hell out of here!"

I grab my backpack and knife that was still on the ground as we walk back to the entrance but it was still blocked by the giant unmovable rock. I had hoped once the ghosts were gone we would be free to leave. Apparently not. We do not know what to do now.

"Not so fast!" a familiar voice cries. Remorah is standing there with a new army of the dead. There are at least 20 of them.

_Just fucking no!_

My whole body suddenly aches with exhaustion and I can still feel blood slowly oozing down my head. Haven't we had enough fun, put on a good enough show already? Maybe they do really want a death. It is kind of an elaborate trap after all and with no one dying it is just a waste.

"Come on, there's a tunnel in the back of the lake" I cry realizing it is the only way out.

Luckily they are not between us and the lake so we are able to dash to the lake and climb the edge of the basin towards the hole. We climb through as the ghosts start jumping on the ledge coming after us. We sprint through the dark passageway but can't hear them following us anymore. The question is where does this passageway lead? Hopefully to an escape route. After a while we can see an opening. We come out into a different room of the cabin this time, an old bedroom. It has a simple wooden bed with a quilt, an ancient dresser with a deer head mantled on the wall above it and a large tapestry with a scene of four kids who are running through the woods. _Wait the kids seem to be us?_ I can't help but get a closer look. It shows in haunting detail a pretty girl with dark brown hair holding a large knife who looks absolutely horrified, a sweet looking blonde haired girl with wide eyes that has an axe buried in her stomach, a small girl with black hair that has a spear embedded in her neck with red drops spilling on the ground and lastly a black haired boy watching the others unaware of the arrow flying towards him about to pierce his back.

"But, that-that looks like-us!" Zari says horrified.

We immediately run out of the cabin not daring to stop.

After a while we make it to a cave and finally rest. We don't say a word about what just happened, just start to set up camp. We have three sleeping bags so we take two and spread them out not far from the mouth of the cave, enough to be out of the wind but not too far into the darkness. We use the third for a blanket. Then I realize my stomach is aching and how hungry I am. We have not eaten anything since breakfast in the launch room and it is now night and we have spent all day hiking and fighting and running. Suffice to say we are very tired and hungry. Was it really just this morning that I was in the launch room and everything was normal? That can't be right, it feels like weeks since I have been in here not a day.

As we all snack a little on the food from our backpacks the capital seal comes on and the anthem plays. Right I kind of forgot for the moment that this part was coming. Seeing the faces of the dead kids in the sky like this is 100 times worse than I ever thought it would be and I didn't even know any of them that well. I feel sick to my stomach knowing these people that I knew and saw and talked to the last week are all dead just like that. None of them deserve it and now their families are devastated and grieving tonight. I had better get used to it because this is only the beginning and it will be so much worse when one of my allies faces appear in the sky. I shudder knowing that it will happen eventually, unless of course I am the first one in our alliance to die.

The deaths are the boys from 5 6 and 7, the girl from 9, and the boys from 11 and 12.

So someone had killed the boy I kicked down while fighting over the backpack with. I can't help but feel guilty a little. I saw the boys from 5, 7 and 12 killed and of course we knew Piper would be in the sky. I hadn't seen the district 9 girl at all. It is kind of weird to have so many guys die the first day. We then get ready to go to bed and I tell them I will take first watch. We agree to take shifts with me being the first, then Cam and then Zari. I think we all subconsciously agree that Melody should not have to keep watch being only 12.

For hours I sit in front of the cave alone with my night vision glasses on and knife in hand, thinking of what a whirlwind the day has been. It feels nice to just be able to relax in silence now. At least everything turned out okay and we are not really that much worse off for our adventure in the cabin. At least not physically. We still have all of our supplies and only have some minor injuries to show for it. My head has a mild gash on it but it is not that bad; it doesn't throb anymore and I don't have any headaches or dizziness so I am guessing I don't have a concussion or something. Other than that I just have some bruises and minor cuts.

It is quite chilly in just a sweatshirt and thin jacket so I put on my scarf and gloves and remember the much warmer jacket I got from the backpack and put it on. It is much better now but kind of creepy sitting alone in the darkness trying to spy any potential threats that want to kill us. But nothing comes and soon I feel like I am in a trance waiting for something, _anything_ to come and attack us and send me in a desperate panic. But still nothing does. I know the careers are hunting now but catch no sight or sound of them. But I do happen to hear some yowling in the distance and know it must be some kind of wild cat or mutt. I nervously try to think of what the best way to kill one would be if we came across one.

I feel a lot more confidant facing one having my knife. _One stab in the throat. _

Not that it would be easy or safe to do it but is probably the best way to kill one.

Soon enough it is time to switch watches so I creep back to where my allies are sleeping peacefully. I wake Cam up and we sit by the entrance for a minute.

"Do you think it would've worked? That they could just steal our lives and be alive again?" I ask him quietly still quite disturbed by the idea.

He looks a little shocked at the question and thinks about it, "I guess so, if the capital can make zombies and ghosts and mutts why not?"

"Yeah, well I'm going to sleep now" I tell him realizing how exhausted I am suddenly.

Man this has been an awfully long day hasn't it? What with waking up in my room less than 24 hours ago and being thrown in the arena, fighting through the bloodbath, walking for hours, finding the cabin and solving the riddle, finding the ghosts, fighting for our lives again and managing to escape somehow and now resting in the cave. I think I can safely say that it was the longest 24 hours I have ever experienced.

I fall asleep hoping that this day had just been another nightmare.


	19. Am I Thinking Like a Winner Yet?

**Am I Thinking Like a Winner Yet?**

Day 2 in the Arena

* * *

_"I figure life's a gift and I don't intend on wasting it. You don't know what hand you're gonna get dealt next._

_You learn to take life as it comes at you... to make each day count."_

-Jack Dawson, _Titanic_

* * *

"Priya! Priya!"

I open my eyes when Cam shakes me awake. The first thing I notice is that the cave is brightly illuminated by the morning sun.

Well we survived the first day at least.

I groan remembering our little adventure in the cabin. It seemed like such a thing from a horror story, something that I had seen on the games a hundred times before. It is so different though actually _being_ in the arena than just seeing the events unfold on TV. Watching on screen you are safe and sound, with no threat to your life. You don't have to smell the blood, get shivers and goosebumps from being a split second away from death, have your hand get sore from constantly holding your knife so tightly because your life depends on it, be watched by all of panem with no privacy or break whatsoever or feel the blinding exhaustion in your legs and lungs as you desperately sprint for your life knowing you could be dead any second.

So yeah being a tribute in the Hunger Games _sucks_.

It is like being in the middle of an action movie-except it is so painfully and unforgivingly _real_-and there are no second chances or do-overs. In a way I guess a more appropriate comparison would be to an animal trapped in a cage at a circus or a zoo, where they are on display and forced to perform for entertainment with no chance of ever being free. Of course people aren't exactly coming to see them be slaughtered are they? Oh! I just realized the absolutely perfect and truest comparison to what we are; illegal animal fighting rings. In both circumstances the real kick for people is in watching fights to the death and partaking in the mad betting that goes on. They fanatically and thoughtlessly cheer on the violence because they are pathetic and horrible human beings basking in the bloodshed and pain of others. I mean think about it, it is _exactly_ the same thing just on a grander scale, except when they do this to animals it is considered illegal, but when it is _human children_ it is not only legal but actually sanctioned, applauded and forced down our throats by the government like a huge festivity that deserves to be celebrated. And I blame all the stupid brainwashed citizens just as much as the government. It is one thing for a tyrannical and bloodthirsty dictator to exist but quite another for everyone to do absolutely nothing to stop it and actually embrace it and willingly give him the power. There will always be people-leaders that are "evil" let's say and it is up to the citizens to make sure they are not positions of power and unseat them if they are. It is clear Panem has failed miserably in this regard.

Okay okay I know, enough talk of the philosophy behind Panem and the games before I start to bore you.

So getting back to our problems of today and not yesterdays, we quickly figure out that we will need to find more food soon. We only have a few day's worth of food between us. Besides I don't think any of us are up for more _stimulating_ activities than looking for food right now. We decide to make a big deal out of breakfast and slice up a loaf of bread that Zari got in the bloodbath. Melody finds some edible berries close by and squishes them on a rock to make a sort of jam for the bread. She also found a small nest with some eggs on the ground so we make a small fire in the cave and cook them. Then best of all we get our first sponsor gift with some orange juice and then another with a small amount of delicious smelling sizzling bacon that makes our mouths water with its tantalizing scent. It seems that we were a hit with sponsors after our exciting day yesterday. I am guessing no one else ran into such trouble-I mean were as interesting as us. Just doing my duty to my country after all. You could sense the sarcasm there right?

We sit around merrily eating our 5 star worthy breakfast and discussing what to do next. Finding more food was crucial as we did not have that much from our packs, especially with four people to feed. Besides the rest of the bread we each only had a small amount of crackers and dried meat. Thus our plan to forage and hunt for food later, as well as refill our water supply which is rapidly running low as well.

"Can we explore the cave?" Melody asks excitedly as we are almost done.

We can now see that the cave leads back into a dark tunnel. _Yes another tunnel, what is it with our alliance and dark tunnels?_

Naturally I immediately have misgivings about this idea. It feels so much like last time-oh lets just go see what that is!-and look at how that turned out! However it is not like we have anything better to do at the moment so we agree and clean up and pack up all of our stuff. We start heading back in the cave with the use of my night vision glasses and some torches that we made with nearby branches before putting the fire out. It doesn't take us long to realize the cave is not that interesting and every place is the same, filled with endless expanses of various rock formations and minerals dripping from the ceiling. It goes straight back with no interesting turns or separate caverns to pass through. Eventually we can't see the light from the opening anymore and it is starting to look ominous. I shudder at how easily the gamemakers could trap us in here. I _really_ don't want to be caught in yet another of their traps.

"Maybe we should go back now" I start to say after a while. Before anyone can answer we all hear a rustle of movement above us.

_Bats_

But these aren't normal bats I know, they have to be mutts. They are covered in black fur except on their ugly bald heads. They each have a wingspan of about a foot and there are dozens of them flying down towards us shrieking with glee. I can see the sharp fangs glinting from their mouths as they prepare to bite into flesh. Oh yeah and they all have creepy ass glowing red eyes, did I mention that? I raise my knife as they swoop down and the world commences into battle and every second becomes only about the few feet in front of me, dodging and stabbing everything I see. My knife sinks into bat after bat as they try to bite me. I hear the others screaming and fighting as well and look to see the battle raging as my allies are each several feet apart beating back the bats. Cam has a dagger and like me is using it to stab the bats. That is the only other weapon besides my knife that our alliance has. Zari and Melody are using the torches and heavy rocks they grabbed on the ground to beat them back and bludgeon them. In my moment of looking around I forget about the ones coming after me until I feel a sharp pain on my cheek and realize with horror that one just swooped from the side and bit me. I immediately plunge my knife into its back, killing it instantly. After being satisfied that no more bats are coming I turn to see my allies all breathing heavily and bearing scratches.

"Well that was a good morning workout" I mutter and they laugh. We are now quite obviously done with our little exploration and so head back to the entrance. I am relieved to see it just as we had left it, for I had half expected us to be trapped in here. That wouldn't have surprised me _at all_.

"Your bleeding! Are you okay?" Zari says as she sees the bite on my cheek. Oh right I thought, those bats better not have been poisonous. "Yeah I think so, I feel fine, don't think they were poisonous or anything" I assure them.

"Okay we wasted enough time with the cave; we need to find some more food now" I say and we head out leaving the empty cave.

We pass that calm perfect lake again and find some wild raspberry bushes in the little woods surrounding it. We collect some and move down the winding path. We soon realize that we will have to return to the main woods as it is evident there are not many food sources in the valley besides the berries. Only several minutes after we made the climb back to the main woods we come across another alliance, Ampere, Hertz and Tesla. They must be looking for a good place to make their trap. We all come to a brief halt and look at each other not knowing what to do. We should try and kill each other. We have had enough fighting already thank you very much. This is awkward. I look into their eyes and know they do not want to kill us any more than we want to kill them so I nod to them and we walk on, coming to a silent agreement that says _we didn't see you, you didn't see us_.

We then get back to looking for potential food sources. We see an occasional squirrel and rabbit but I only have a knife to hunt with at the moment but with four people it would be impossible to catch anything as we are too loud. I debate whether proposing we should split up, but I guess it is not that necessary yet. Melody then notices some more berries but quickly deduces they are nightlock, the most poisonous berry in Panem. If you ate even one of those berries you would be dead before it got to your stomach. Too bad the careers don't eat them. We keep walking and find some nuts.

"Do you think they are okay to eat" Cam asks.

"I think so" Zari says and eats one. We hold our breaths and after a few minutes when nothing happens she laughs saying, "that was dramatic."

We keep moving after collecting a bunch of the nuts, and after about 20 minutes find a riverbank.

"Maybe we can catch some fish!" I tell them excitedly. We hurry to the water and find that there are indeed fish in the river. I head over to the trees looking for a long stick I can turn into a spear. Once I find one I tell the others to look for one too so we can all try fishing and will have a weapon. I pull out my knife and sit on a rock as I sharpen the edge with my blade. I make these makeshift spears a lot at home so I am an expert at it, as is pretty much everyone in district 4. My knife is very sharp and easily fashions the end into a deadly point. Cam of course is an expert too and we show Zari and Melody how to make them and all head to the river, spears in hand. I take off my boots and socks and walk in barefoot, leaving them by my backpack on the shore. This might not be the smartest thing if we have to run or there are sharp rocks or worse mutts in the river, but I would rather have cold and sore feet for a few minutes than spend the rest of the day with soaking wet socks and boots. The water is ice cold and there is a strong breeze out in the open air without trees to block it so before long I am chilled to the bone. There are no mutts or anything so within 15 minutes we have caught 6 fish, enough for a good meal. We also fill up on water. The question is how to cook them without giving away our location. It is about late afternoon now judging by the position of the bright golden light illuminating the dazzling silver clouds. Once again I must admit this arena is a truly spectacular place, and I am thankful that I am still able to appreciate its beauty despite the horrible situation.

In the end we decide to head back to our cave and make the fire far back so the smoke will not be that visible. As we approach the mountainous terrain I find I really need to pee so I tell them to go on ahead and I will meet them there. And yes it sucks knowing cameras are always watching you but there is no choice. Just another way for them to take our dignity. Once I am done I start heading back when I can suddenly hear shouting and can tell it is coming from a clearing up ahead. I creep over and see Zion, the boy from 10, holding a sword over Rueben who looks like crap. He has a large cut on his forehead that is oozing blood and I can see that he has a large slash across his chest. Zion then starts to swing the sword down and Rueben rolls aside. He then hits him with the butt of the sword instead and has Rueben pinned against a tree. He now lifts the sword ready to deliver a death blow. This moment seems to last forever as I panic, not wanting to just sit by and watch Rueben be murdered. I notice a big heavy rock on the ground and grab it and before I know what I am doing I fly across the small clearing. Zion is so intent on murdering that he doesn't even notice me at all but Rueben does. I can see his dark eyes widen with surprise, confusion and relief at seeing me.

I swing the heavy rock against his head, with a horrifying crack and blood flying in the air. Rueben scrambles up and looks at me. Zion is still alive but knocked out.

"You can kill him if you want but I gotta catch up with my allies" I say smirking. Rueben silently nods and grabs Zion's sword and stands over him when suddenly he is frantically sprinting towards me with terror on his face and harshly grabs my arm and pulls me away from the clearing into a sprint.

"What the hell was that!" I shout at him as we run.

"Just run" he grumbles slightly out of breath. I look back and spot several flashes of gold flying after us. _Tracker Jackers._ It all makes sense now. We lose them after a while and stop running. There is a slightly awkward silence between us as we catch our breath and size each other up. What do you say after that?

"Thanks I guess" he says.

"What the hell happened to you? You look like crap by the way. I thought you had a sword?" I ask at once.

"I did but ran into the careers this morning and barely got away, but lost the sword." He answers.

"Well glad you got away" I reply honestly.

"How about you? Wheres your allies?" he asks.

"Waiting for me. Let's see well yesterday we found this haunted cabin and had to solve a riddle with the answer being death, then it led us underground to this hellish cavern that had ghosts of past tributes, then we saw on a screen what all the tributes were doing and careers kill the boy from 11, then the ghosts tried to trap us there and I was about a second from having them steal my life so one of them could come alive themselves, then we got away barely and have just been looking for food today, well after fighting a bunch of bat mutts" I say in a hurry.

He looks at me like I have gone crazy.

"You sure you didn't get stung after all?" he asks and I laugh.

"Believe me I wish I was making it up" I say happily, enjoying his dumbstruck expression, "Well guess I should go"

"Okay good luck then" he responds.

"You too" I say as I head off.

Luckily I make it back to our valley without meeting anyone else, but when I approach the creepy lake I hear someone. I peer through the trees carefully and see the district 11 girl Bryony walking into the lake. I watch curiously to see if the lake is a trap or not. She is about waist deep when she must hit a drop off because she starts flailing around and screaming. She somehow is drowning and can't stand up despite being only waist high a second ago. I am not sure if I should just move on or try and do something to help? _Do I have to save every stinking tribute in this arena instead of kill them? _Wait what am I saying, risk my life to save some random tribute? Am I really going to try and save two people who are not even my allies in the space of an hour? What is wrong with me? God I really hate this place for making me feel horrible for looking at kids as commodities. Then I feel a burst of anger at the world, why does it have to be _my _responsibility-_my_ problem to save them? Why should I? I really need to get a thicker skin so I don't feel this bad when any random tribute gets killed. Damn me for having to be a decent person with a conscience-this would be so much easier if I didn't care and just said screw it let's kill innocent kids and become a psycho killer. Yeah maybe I should just do that...

I can't help that my natural impulse to seeing people about to be murdered is to save them-not finish them off.

But then any question of what to do becomes irrelevant when I see an explosion of blood and the girl lets out a blood curdling cry. I know it is time to leave now before someone hears but unfortunately I don't leave soon enough to miss what happens next. A horrible fish mutt piranha with a huge mouth and teeth like shark jumps out of the water and cleanly takes off one of her hands. She is now screaming as I have never heard anyone scream before; a cry of utter agony that vibrates through my bones. I see more and more of them jump in a flash of blood and limbs. One grabs a piece of her shoulder; another some fingers on her other hand. _They are quite literally tearing her apart._ I tear myself away from the awful scene but not before the last two leave horrible burning images in my mind. As I walk away I shudder at the last mutts, who tore off one of her ears and a chunk from her throat. She is not screaming anymore, but there is still no cannon.

As I come to the cave I hear the cannon finally. I see Cam keeping watch and my allies all look so worried it takes a while to calm them down.

"What happened?" "Who died?" "Are you okay?" they ask at the same time.

"We are not going back to the lake" I manage to spit out with a shudder. I tell them there are mutts in there and leave it at that. We start a small fire in the cave and cook the fish finally. I like fish, it is one of my favorite foods so it is nice to have it here. I don't think Zari really likes it though judging by her expression. Granted it is not the best tasting fish in the world, as we don't have anything to season it or cook it with or anything. It smells really fishy too, which I understand some people do not _appreciate _for some reason. I guess it can also be a turnoff seeing the dead fish being gutted which I admit it is not a particularly appetizing sight. As we finish eating I remember the girl's supplies that she left on the ground in front of the lake. Crap I should have grabbed them before running away but I was so freaked out.

"I'm gonna go back and see if her supplies are still there" I said explaining briefly. Cam immediately says he is coming too as I should not go by myself again. So we leave and quietly creep down towards the small forest area in the valley. Just as we get to the lake and see her abandoned supplies we can make some loud voices in the distance. It is obviously the Careers-no one else would be so noisy-and they are getting closer. We quietly walk back as fast as we dare and we all pack up quickly and leave the cave. I also happened to notice when we were there that the lake was clear and perfect again-no blood, no mess, no limbs floating in it-no sign of the girl who had been torn apart in it only a few moments ago. This makes me feel even more creeped out than I would have been finding her chopped up body parts floating in the bloody water. All I can think is _w_a_s that real? did that really happen? _

We can't go far else risk them seeing us so we hide in a tiny alcove area between our cave and the next one. It is only about 10 feet wide and densely vegetated so we have a difficult time walking through the thick trees and plants. I don't think the gamemakers expected tributes to venture in here. We can't see or hear anything so I assume we are safe for now. Still there is nowhere to really set up camp in here as it is too tightly covered with trees and plants. The vegetation is that thin rough wild type you only get where people don't go. It is about 20 feet long before it reaches the vertical rising slope of the mountain. Then I notice a fairly steep muddy bank right over where the cave is, and the top provides good cover with plenty of trees.

"We should go up there" I tell them and they all look at me doubtfully. It is about a 20 foot climb that looks difficult but manageable. If we can get up there we will be safe from everyone. I use my makeshift spear as a walking stick to help me. It is pretty slippery and my boots are soon covered in mud. It is slow going but I reach the halfway point and grab a tree to hold on to as I look to see how my allies are doing. I take a sip of water just as Melody's foot slips and she starts to fall back down the slope. I manage to just grab her arm stopping her from sliding back down. My water flask went flying into the shrubs on the slope and I can't see it. She grunts as I am crudely grabbing her arm in what must be a very painful way. I am scared to move for fear of slipping in the mud and sending us both tumbling back down but I shove her up a little and she manages to get up. Once my allies have reached the top I sigh and set about finding my water flask. It is pretty impossible to move through the vegetation on the slope. Not only is it muddy, slippery and at a very steep-nearly vertical- angle so I risk twisting my ankle every step; but the vegetation is quite thorny and prickly. I am soon covered with scratches and thorns, muddy, tired, hungry, annoyed and still can't find the flask. Eventually I can spot it stuck in some nest about 10 feet in a tree. Growling slightly I use my spear to try and knock it down but it is just barely out of reach. Then I do the insane thing in this situation and jump slightly. It takes a couple tries before I get it to come loose and I slip, falling on my butt and sliding forcefully and painfully right into a tree. The flask tumbles down and I just manage to grab it before it flies past me. I can't see my allies through the vegetation but hope they did not see that. I stand up, my backside incredibly sore, and make my way up the rest of the slope.

"Are you okay?" asks Cam seeing my gingerly walk.

"Yeah, I found it" I say.

"I'm sorry!" Melody says looking really sad and guilty. I can see the poor kid is still all covered in mud and I almost chuckle at the sight of the cute tiny girl.

"It's okay" I assure her with a somewhat tense smile. It is not that I blame her or am mad at her or anything; I'm just not in a very good mood.

It turns out this was an ideal spot for tributes to hide. We are at least 50 feet above the valley and there are a ton of trees that veil us from view, and as you might have noticed it is quite difficult to get to and I doubt any other tributes have discovered it. We however have a good vantage point to see if any tributes are wandering around from our hiding spot. On the downside it is a lot colder than in the cave and we can't exactly make a fire here but it is far safer as anyone would immediately check the cave for tributes. I put on my scarf, gloves and the large warmer jacket from my backpack. It soon starts drizzling as night approaches. We are silent as we carefully watch the careers come and check all the caves then leave the valley without being aware we were right under their noses the whole time.

The capital seal comes up and anthem plays and we all watch as the girl from 11s face is the only one in the sky tonight. I feel a horrible pain remembering the girl's screams and grisly death. No one needs to have that image in their mind. We find a large random piece of wood and use it to make a crude shelter for our heads so that they will be out of the drizzle and then we set up our sleeping bags and immediately snuggle in as it is very chilly up here. I don't think we need to worry about being snuck up on or anything tonight but it is still not a good idea for us all to be asleep at the same time. This time Zari takes the first watch so I fall asleep until I'm woken by Zari a couple of hours later when it is my turn.

"Nothing happened?" I ask and she shakes her head confirming it.

I constantly shiver as I keep watch staring over the beautiful mountain valley illuminated by the moonlight. I notice there is a full moon tonight and the trees up here are rather thinner and shorter than those in the woods. The whole scene is pretty surreal and looks well kind of magical actually. I suddenly hear a faint rustling and watch carefully as a small animal walks out. I am not sure what it is, not a squirrel or rabbit that's for sure. It looks kind of like a rat except much bigger and has thick grey speckled fur. It has black eyes, large rounded ears and a weird long furry tail. The animal comes closer and sits on its hind legs like a chipmunk or squirrel and watches me from about three feet away. _It could be a mutt_ I think cautiously but something-_instinct_ tells me it's not. I slowly grab some of my leftover berries and throw one to the creature. It immediately eats it and looks at me for more. I sigh and throw another one a little closer. What, you ask, am I doing wasting food on an animal while in a game to the death where I could very well starve to death later? Good question. Just call me crazy I guess. It comes closer and I throw another one. It is almost right next to me now so I hold one in my hand and it grabs it and eats it. I give it one more and this time can feel the soft fur on its head when it grabs it and I don't think I have ever felt anything so soft before. I love this little animal now, whatever it is. I decide that is all the food I can waste so I put the rest of the berries away murmuring, "sorry little guy" to the creature. It soon scrambles away and I decide it is time to switch watches.

_So yeah avoiding a fight with that alliance, saving a person from being killed and wasting food feeding an animal; I am quite the little Hunger Games E__xtraordinaire _huh...


	20. Cotton Balls, Careers and Avalanches

**Cotton Balls, Careers and Avalanches**

Day 3 in the Arena

* * *

_"The truth is, a moral compass can only point you in the right direction, it can't make you go there. _

_Our culture preaches that you shouldn't be ashamed of anything you do anymore._

_ And unfortunately this city is built on the principle that there's no such thing as guilt. "Do whatever you want, we won't tell." _

_So without a conscience, there's nothing to stop you from killing someone. And evidently you don't even have to feel bad about it."_

-Gil Grissom, _CSI_

* * *

For the first time I wake up to panicked screaming.

"AHHH"

"What the hel-What is that thing!"

"Get away from there!"

"Help me get it away!"

"Get rid of it, scare it off!"

Welcome to day three in the arena.

I get up to see what all of the commotion is about and laugh; because there are Cam and Zari crazily freaking out and panicking and sitting in Cam's backpack is none other than my little friend from last night.

"What's going on?" Melody asks sleepily rubbing her eyes and looking around. Her eyes widen with a childish love for animals when she sees the creature.

"This _thing_ was just crawling in my backpack! And it was closed, I know it was!" Cam says indignantly.

"Oh don't hurt it" I say rushing forward as Cam pulls out his dagger.

He looks at me in shock, "Why not, it could be food?"

I know, I know, I should see reason and never pass up a meal in the Hunger Games.

However I just can't think of the poor creature as a meal, and will not let us kill it!

"Because it is not like we need food that desperately and-and I kinda saw him last night" I say pathetically.

"You saw him last night?" Cam repeats.

"Yes, I uh gave him a couple berries-I was bored!" I say defensively.

He stares at me and laughs, "You fed your food to an animal in the hunger games? I don't think I have ever seen anyone do that in the games before"

"Yeah I know blah blah blah it was stupid and I'm horrible and bad at playing the games and what not but we are not killing it, I forbid it!" I tell him firmly.

"Okay then, we won't but would you so kindly get it out of my backpack then before it eats all my food?" he says.

"Fine" I scowl marching over to the pack and gently tipping it over so the creature comes out.

"See it's not that hard, nothing to freak out about" I tell him smirking.

"I wanna feed it!" Melody says getting some of her own berries and offering them to the critter. Cam scowls at us both.

"Great this is all your fault you know," he says to me and I scowl back and then flash an innocent smile to annoy him. Guys just don't get it.

"Me too!" Zari chimes in coming over.

"Chicks" Cam mutters under his breath shaking his head.

So Melody, Zari and I "play" with the little thing for a bit and as naturally tends to happen when kids get attached to an animal...

"We need to name it!" Mel exclaims, then coos "Hi Mr. Cotton Ball! I'm gonna call you that cause you are softer than cotton!"

And so that is the story of how the little animal is now christened Mr. Cotton Ball.

As we-and Mr. Cotton Ball-eat our breakfast I realize how much things are starting to feel routine in the arena now. It is hard to believe that the real world exists anymore, that people are just going about their normal lives the same as always. That things could ever be normal again. Being in here it is like we are just running from one danger and adventure to another in some alternate universe. You can't really think of what occurred yesterday or before, you can only focus on the present and immediate future. Luckily none of us have been hurt that badly and we have found plenty of food. I know it is only a matter of time though before we are ripped apart one way or another. I wonder what my parents and sister are doing now, how they are handling it. I have not really thought of them since I have been here as there is too much to worry about.

Today we just have a small breakfast, eating into our small stash of food. We have two cold fish and a moderate amount of berries and nuts from yesterday, as well as two packs of crackers and 1 pack of dried meat left from our original backpacks between us. It might sound like a lot but you would be surprised how fast four people go through food. We are in the middle of discussing what to do today when we can hear a deep rumbling which makes us pause and look up fearfully. Remembering that avalanches will happen I stand up and start getting my stuff together.

"Come on we need to leave now!" I say hurriedly and they are quick to follow my example. We can hear the rumbling get worse as we go down the slope. Just as we break our way out of the woods I can see the snow start to explode down a far off mountain. We desperately sprint for our lives in the direction of the main woods. I can hear the violent roaring as the avalanche quickly overtakes the whole valley. This is absolutely the most terrifying thing that I have ever been in. The ground is shaking hard and it is really difficult to run but of course I don't stop. The sheer power of this thing is crazy. I can't hear anything besides the thunderous roaring. Snow violently billows around me and I have no clue where my allies are anymore, I can't see anything but white. Then the monster avalanche swallows me up as I am sucked under and buried in snow.

There are two things I am aware of; the first is that I am completely and utterly freezing and the second is that it is dead silent and I can not hear a single thing. I am sure I have never been this cold in my life. Being from 4, snow and cold are not my forte-I am strictly a sun and beach kind of girl. I am violently shaking and shivering-I don't know anything else but I know that. I can feel my lips and eyelids start to freeze up when I try to move them and I feel completely frozen. Opening my eyes I can't make out anything but some snow falls in and burns them. Now I feel desperate panic of being trapped in here. Then I become aware of how hard it is to breathe-_is there even any air in here?_ I try to force myself to move but I can't feel my limbs. Now I start trying to move the snow above me in a desperate bid to get out. My hand miraculously reaches air but I am so tired and frozen I can't pull myself out. I can barely think and have no energy to keep trying. The snow seems so overwhelmingly heavy. I just wish to stop fighting and sleep in my snowy grave.

_You can't stop,_ a voice in my head says, _you are right there and will not die like this so get over it and pull yourself out_. Groaning I do pull myself out. My teeth are chattering and my skin is practically blue and frozen. I have snow stuck to my eyebrows and eyelashes and my lips stick together painfully. I rub my hands over my arms to try and regain feeling in them. What I see is beyond anything I could have ever envisioned. The _only_ thing I can see is white and the faint shape of the mountains. It is a tundra wasteland; I can't see where anything is, which direction is which or anything of my allies. My sweatshirt and jacket are completely soaked and full of snow, I can't find my scarf and only have 1 glove on. I still have my knife but no backpack! This makes me panic and I throw myself in the area I was laying and dig through the snow. After about 5 minutes I find it thank god. I do not know what I would do without my supplies. I immediately put on my extra jacket and feel better. The ground is covered with several feet of snow making it almost impossible to move anywhere.

"Hello!" I call loudly hoping at least one of my allies are okay. My voice echos around the now destroyed valley. No one responds.

I still have no idea what direction the main woods are in, or if my allies are dead or dying or okay. I pick a random direction and start walking. After however long it is, I have no idea but it feels like a long time, I can start to see the little wooded area with the lake and feel a lot of relief. The snow stopped at the edge and I now know the way out. It will take me a while at the slow pace though. Once I am pretty close I trip on something. I look down and see it is a foot-one of my allies! I immediately start digging them out. I know quickly it is Melody and get her out. She is unconscious and frozen and blue and looks well-dead. I didn't hear any cannons but could easily have missed any. Is she dead? I try to feel for any pulse or rise in her chest but come up with nothing. I however am not a quitter and-with much effort-drag her into the woods. I lay her down on the ground and observe with relief that I can make out a faint pulse. I know I need to warm her up immediately so I take off my warmer jacket and cover her tiny body with it. I am now freezing again but will live. I then grab some leaves and throw them all over her exposed body. Not only to keep her warm but also to camouflage her. That is the best I can do for now and I need to look for my other two allies. I quickly walk through the little wooded area we are in as it is not that big. They are nowhere to be found so I will need to venture in the valley again. It is the same, all I can see is white and I can barely move through the thick snow. My hands are freezing as I try to dig through the snow in random areas and occasionally call their names. I can quickly see how impossible this task is. I can't make out anything, the whole valley is covered in a blanket of snow. They could be right under my feet and I wouldn't know.

Just as I am about to give up I spot a dark shape in the distance, easily breaking up the monotony of the snow. I get there and see the thing is a scarf, is it mine? It looks like it. I put it on, but it is so cold and covered with snow it doesn't do much to make me any warmer, it keeps out the wind though. I look around hoping to see something-_anything_ else around here but don't. I dig in the snow for a while but find nothing. I notice a spot that has already been dug through and realize, my heart falling, that it is where I was before. At this point my body is becoming too frozen to go on so I grudgingly go back to the woods, following my footsteps from before. I see Melody is just how I left her. I feel so weak, alone, terrified and helpless right now. How am I supposed to survive when I am so freezing and trapped in this wasteland? How am I supposed to find my other allies? Are they dead already? How can I just give up without knowing that for sure? How am I supposed to save Melody when I can barely save myself? I huddle up next to her with what feels like the weight of the world on me. All I know is I have Melody here, with no sign of the others so I need to do what I can to save her-that is all I can do now. A parachute then comes down and I eagerly grab it to find two small vials of a golden liquid. It is so breathtakingly warm and sweet smelling I practically faint. I immediately drown one and feel the warmth flow throughout my body. I no longer feel like a block of ice! With this renewed energy I try to wake Melody up but she is still out cold. Her skin is still freezing so I decide to start a fire. Yeah maybe not the smartest thing but I don't care, she will die if I don't. I collect some branches and leaves and make a fire next to her with the last of my matches.

The fire is so wonderfully warm. I look through my backpack to see what supplies I have left; my knife, my extra jacket, night vision glasses, small first aid pack and a little bit of food. I guess it is more than most tributes have now so I am lucky I guess. Somehow however, I don't feel all that lucky right now. I debate on what to do next. Should we go to the main woods or stay here? Would the other tributes leave this area alone now? Would the careers come? I decide we will stay here tonight at least in case our other allies are somehow nearby and okay. At least until the anthem and we know for sure if they are still alive or not. I can see Melody is slowly gaining color back. I eat a little of my food as I wait silently as hours pass by. I am getting more and more convinced that Cam and Zari are dead now. Which sucks. Because I am bored and it is a good idea to have more weapons I start making a spear from a branch as I lost my other in the avalanche. As I absentmindedly look at the destroyed valley I can make out a thin trail of smoke coming from a cave on the edge of the mountain. Then I feel torn about leaving Melody here alone and defenseless while I go. I drag her into some nearby bushes for cover and head out. It seems the snow is melting slightly now and it is kind of mushy. It is definitely warmer out now too. I get to the cave, which is almost at the end of the valley and see the entrance is covered by snow like a big wall, except at the top there is an opening where smoke is coming from.

"Cam?, Zari?" I call.

"Priya?" I hear them calling.

"Hold on" I say and start shoveling the snow wall away with my hands.

This is not as simple as you think. The wall is several feet thick and at least 10 feet high so it could all collapse on me.

"Stand back" I call as I take my spear and punch it through the wall.

Soon enough I get it open and there they are, looking freezing and tired. We hug and ask each other what happened. They had managed to run into a cave right before the avalanche swept us up and were then stuck and barely have any supplies left. It happened to be the cave we were in before so they used the old fire we made to make a new one. We now head back to the little wooded area. We gather around the fire, which is almost out at this point and bring it back. I go to find Melody but she is not where I left her in the bushes! Did she wake up and just walk around? Did she think we abandoned her? Did someone get her? No there would have been a cannon if she died.

"Melody isn't there, can you see her around here anywhere?" I call to them looking around.

"No" says Cam.

"I can't" says Zari.

"Oh don't worry, I can see your pathetic little ally" a snide voice calls out.

We whip around as Satin and Gem come out smirking. Gem is holding Melody who is now awake and looking terrified as he holds a knife to her throat.

We immediately grab our weapons; I have a spear and knife, Cam has his dagger and Zari only has a rock.

"Drop your weapons now or I'll kill her" he orders.

"She's only 12, you asshole!"I shout furiously.

"So?" Gem says calmly with a sneering smile.

I scoff, "Is that all you have to say about slaughtering 12 year olds, so?" I ask scornfully.

I notice he also has a sword, and Satin has a bunch of knives. I come up with an idea seeing a huge pile of snow on a branch right above them.

"Do it, now!" he barks.

"Fine" I say as I hold out my spear pretending I am about to drop it. Instead I quickly throw it at the branch above them and it embeds itself harshly in the wood and the branch sways forcefully so that all the snow falls on them. I run forward and grab Melody from under the snow. They quickly recoup and face us.

"You are going to pay for that!" Satin screeches shaking snow from her hair.

"Aww, It's just a little snow, try being in an avalanche" I smirk. We all circle each other, knowing a battle is about to break out.

Gem advances on me, and Satin on Cam and Zari. Melody is standing behind me.

"You called me an asshole, no one does that and lives" he informs me.

"Well you are an asshole, the truth hurts doesn't it?" I smirk brandishing my knife as he readies his sword.

He thrusts his sword at me as the battle breaks out. I parry it, stepping back. He swings it at me again and I duck. Then he punches me in the face and I stumble back from the force. He punches my stomach a few times before I hold him back by swinging my knife around wildly and cut his arm. He swings the sword again and I jump away. This continues for a bit, him attacking and me either blocking, dodging or dancing away. He then does a fake out, pretending to swing his sword again but instead brutally smacking the hilt into my lower chest. All I can feel is the blinding pain as I double over. I look through my blurry vision to see Satin fighting Cam and Zari. That fight is not going well either. I see Gem now standing over Melody holding his sword and nothing but the pure unadulterated fury of seeing 12 year olds be brutally murdered makes me rush over, grab his jacket and easily throw him to the ground.

Don't think I suddenly have superhuman strength or something and can just throw a strong muscular 260 pound 5'10'' 18 year old male to the ground. After all I am only like 5'3'' and 100 pounds. No, it was just that he was completely taken by surprise, thinking I was immobilized. Which speaking of that hurts like _HELL_.

"You wanna touch her you'll have to go through me first!" I shout at him.

He stands up quickly and growls at me, "Gladly"

He tries to viciously chop my head off but I jump back, my chest stinging with the sudden movement. He then attempts to impale my stomach but I knock the sword off its path enough so it only slices my arm a bit and I can feel the fresh blood flowing down to the ground. I decide I need to take a more offensive route and try his own fake out tactic. I send my knife aiming for his head then slam the butt hard against his stomach. He looks stunned from the impact but immediately counters by kicking me to the ground. I dive aside as the sword comes flying and impales right where my head was. I can see Melody now watching terrified. Yeah I am losing this battle.

"RUN, GET OUTTA HERE" I scream to her. I stand up just as Gem sends another blow at me. I raise my knife defensively to block it and see that it somehow impaled his forearm just above the wrist. I am still holding the hilt and the tip is buried a few inches in his skin. We both pause. This is really awkward. I decide the best thing is to pull it out so I do and he snarls with the pain. He grabs my wrist holding the knife and bends it in an unnatural way and I am forced to drop my knife to the ground. I let out a cry from the pain and slam my other fist hard into his nose. I drop to the ground to get my knife but he kicks me away before I can. We both look like crap. He rushes at me, aiming for my head, and I drop down into a low crouch at the last minute. I can feel his heavy boots kicking me as he trips over me and goes flying head first behind me. I run and grab my knife now. I can see Satin stab Zari deeply in the arm and she falls down. Cam then comes from nowhere and tries to stab Satin and they engage in a desperate knife fight. A fist slams into my chin, immediately knocking me to the ground. Oh right, Gem. Why he didn't just send a sword in my gut I'll never know.

It is getting hard to really move now with all my injuries, my whole body feels like one big bruise and I am bleeding all over. I get up, feeling dizzy and he kicks my legs out from under me and I once again am sprawled on the ground. This time he jumps on my legs to hold me down.

"Not getting away this time 4" he smirks as he pins my shoulders down so I can't really move.

"Oh this will be so fun, Fusion and Aurora will be so angry when they find out I killed you" he grins, "Now because I am so nice, how would you like me to kill you, there are so many ways! I could stab you, decapitate you, strangle you, snap your neck...pick your choice"

"I think..." I say trying to keep my voice from shaking, "you should go and off yourself"

This comment only makes him smile wider, "Oh well, I tried to be nice, now I am going to kill you"

"And what exactly makes you think you will be able to do that?" I spit and he looks so bewildered at the question it is almost funny. I guess to him it is so obvious he can't answer. Yeah I must look stupid asking that when he has me pinned down and is more than capable of ending my life in numerous ways. Oh well it bought me a few more seconds to work out a plan, which was why I said it.

"Because it will be so easy!" he sneers.

"Like killing 12 year olds?" I spit back, "You are pathetic and a coward!"

"Don't call me a coward!" he roars slamming his fist in my mouth. The pain is horrible and I can sickeningly feel blood pooling up in my mouth.

"Priya!" I hear someone shout. I think Cam.

"Why don't you tell me, how strong do you have to be to kill a little girl!" I scream at him with venom.

"Shut up!" he roars again, this time letting go of my shoulders and raising his sword above me for a deathblow. Yeah maybe I should have stopped talking. Not really knowing what I am doing, I jab him hard in both armpits and he gasps from the shock and drops the sword. Of course the sword, being right above me, hits me and cuts my cheek and nose but I get out from under him, grabbing my knife. He looks furious at being outsmarted by something so stupid. I guess they never had a "poke your opponent in the armpit" class at the training center. I can now see Zari is useless in the fight with no weapon and her arm immobilized, Satin now has Cam pinned against a tree and Melody is standing a ways away watching, looking terrified. I know I need to do something fast, but what? Zari hits Satin with a rock before she can stab Cam, so they are both alive for the moment. The lake is close by, we could throw them in, but I don't think I could do that to anyone, even the careers. Not after watching them tear apart that girl. What was her name again? I feel really horrible for not remembering it. I should know it, why can't I remember?

Yeah there I am in the middle of a raging battle for my life freaking out because I can't remember the name of a girl who died yesterday. Some tribute I am.

The only reason Gem didn't kill me yet is because he decided to get rid of Zari first. Maybe he thinks I will fall apart if I know one of my allies is dead-which yeah I probably would-and since Satin apparently can't do the job he is going to do it himself now. Of course I could just run away with Melody right now. If I was a coward, I would. Or if I knew the meaning of the word self preservation. Zari is not aware of Gem coming towards her, as she is still trying to fight Satin. I wildly leap on his back like a feral animal and we both go sprawling right in the middle of the fight between Satin and Cam. They both trip and limbs are flying everywhere in the chaos. Satin gets knocked hard into a tree head first and seems to be immediately knocked out and doesn't get up. Now Cam starts fighting Gem and I try to think of some way to end this fight already. I spy my spear still stuck in the branch and climb the tree desperately to get it. The branch is thin and starts to sway with my weight. The spear is embedded deeply and I try for a long time to get it out. I watch the fight praying my allies don't get killed. Finally, after getting several splinters, I get it out and wait for a perfect angle to throw it at Gem. Should I go for a kill shot? This is a deadly career who just tried to kill us, not some innocent tribute so should I feel bad if I do? Is it justified? Can I? Do I even _want to_?

I almost bang my head on the tree to try and get rid of these infuriating thoughts. Gem knocks Cam to the ground and I know I have to do it now. He stands over him, giving me the perfect angle. I throw it with all my might, putting all of my effort into it. Gem is forcefully slammed into a tree by the spear impaled in his clothes just inches to the side of his neck. He struggles to free himself but can't as the spear is too deeply embedded in the tree. My allies all look at me and scramble up. I jump down from the branch and we all sprint towards the main woods; leaving an unconscious, knocked out Satin and a screaming, thrashing, still pinned to the tree Gem in our wake.

We are quite a site; four bloody, bruised, injured, panicked, scared and out of breath teenagers running through the woods for our life. We run down the mountainous terrain until we reach the main woods. We are a bit turned off of the mountain valleys at the moment, so as silently as possible-which is not saying much given our condition-we walk as far away from that valley as possible. A cannon sound makes us pause-was it one of the careers? After a while we find this little ravine tucked behind a huge 10 foot rock. It is a lot more open than the cave or little wooded area we had stayed so far and I don't like it and feel very exposed. Nonetheless it is the best we can find and it is almost dusk. The first thing is to patch up our many wounds and we only have my small first aid pack. Zari has by far the worst wound in her arm so I give her the only large bandage we have. Cam has his own assortment of cuts and bruises. Melody is the only one who isn't really hurt.

I wipe away all of the blood from my mouth on my sleeve but still feel a sharp pain in the middle of my upper jaw so I try to feel it and find a gap where a tooth should be. The cuts on my face and arm are only superficial. The bruise on my lower chest however is not minor and makes it hard to stand up straight and I can see a huge, dark and nasty looking bruise forming. After that we set up camp, throwing a bunch of leaves on the sleeping bags to help hide them. We then eat the rest of our food as we are pretty starving, not to mention sore and exhausted. We used up pretty much all of our water washing our injuries as well. Tomorrow will be a busy day indeed.

Soon enough the anthem plays and we see the boy from three is the one that died. So I think bitterly, the careers are all still alive and kicking, quite literally on Gems part. I wonder if they are safe back at the cornucopia now or still in the valley? Maybe we should have just killed Gem and Satin. Lord knows they will kill us the first chance they get. Cam and Melody both keep watch, having the least serious injuries. I am very grateful to be able to sleep right now and not have to keep watch. As I lay down and try to sleep I can't help but think of what a productive day it was with getting all four of the careers to hate my guts. I _really_ do not want to know what will happen the next time we see the careers. We managed to all survive for now by the skin of our teeth.

Next time, I know, we will not be so lucky.


	21. Sugar and Spice but Nothing Nice

**Happy Thanksgiving my dear readers!  
**

**Sugar and Spice but Nothing Nice**

Day 4 in the Arena

* * *

_"Besides, even if you didn't do it, I'm going to punish you, because I'm big and you're small, and I'm right and you're wrong. _

_And there's nothing you can do about it."_

-Miss Trunchbull, _Matilda_

* * *

You know those days when you wake up after a particularly important event is over, like the day after Christmas? Everything feels like a letdown and there is a sense of emptiness now that all of the excitement and anticipation is over. You can only see what gifts you got and move on. I imagine it is the same, only in a much worse way, after a huge battle in war. The only thing left is the overwhelming feeling of hollowness and need to pick up whatever pieces are left and start rebuilding.

That is what I feel like when I wake up.

We are all still recuperating from our first real dangerous encounter in the arena. Well our first real injuries at least. I am covered in bruises and cuts and still aching all over. I can still feel a sharp pain in my jaw where my tooth used to be. I wish I had ice or something to put on it but you know it is kind of not an option here, since after all who wouldn't want to see a teenager in pain after getting beat up. I am relieved to find that I can stand and move normally, however every time I move quickly I can feel pain radiating from the area where Gem hit me with the hilt of the sword, sending shivers throughout my body. My clothes are all ripped, dirty and covered in blood. Our medical supplies are almost gone.

On top of that our food stash is empty now. Oh and so is our water supply. So yeah things are going just _great._

I mean everything sounds simply _smashing_ here in the lovely and virtuous arena of doom, doesn't it?

And yes I know I might seem ungrateful blah blah blah; we are all still alive and together after all. I am glad for that of course, we could all easily be dead right now. Let's just say I am not in a very forgiving or generous mood at the moment. I am furious at the government and gamemakers-I trust by now that is self explanatory? I am pissed at all the people watching who got a kick out of me getting beaten and kicked to a pulp and almost stabbed and sliced into pieces. Every last person that thinks seeing a 12 year kid getting held hostage with a knife held to the throat is actually fucking entertaining. I know I should just let it go-accept these things happen-but I just can't. Because these things don't just _happen_, we allow it to happen-no _encourage_ it to happen. Does no one see how wrong it is for the government to murder our children for entertainment, the people that should in theory be keeping the country safe? Yeah what a joke this country is. Ugh. Are all countries like this? Is there anywhere that doesn't do these awful things, where children can just grow up in peace without fear of being thrown in an arena of hell to die and murder other innocent kids? Where people aren't so cowardly and selfish and bloodthirsty? I would like to think so but it is hard to believe such a place exists.

Oh what does it matter? If there was even a place like that no doubt someone would come and ruin it before long because humans in general are greedy, ruthless, power hungry and only care about themselves. Like how so called North America, which was apparently free and just, turned into this harsh and oppressive country. How could they let this happen if it was such a good place? Surely someone would have stood up and said this is wrong! Did nobody listen, everyone too busy in their haste and ambition to realize what they were doing? Or were the people too far gone already to think it was right? Yes I realize I am being cynical regarding governments and people in general, how can I not be when I am about to be murdered, or at least watch as 23 other kids are murdered around me, by my own government? Seriously whose idea was this in the first place? Which person had the bright idea pop into their mind of forcing children into an arena to fight to the death on live TV? Boy I would love to have 5 minutes alone with them to kick their ass to kingdom come. Who knows I might just break my no murdering mantra. I just wish we had no hunger games and could live in peace away from the capitals iron grip.

This makes me recall an old song that the fishermen would sing while out at sea:

_Come all you bold seamen, wherever you're bound, _  
_ And always let Nelson's proud memory go round; _  
_ And pray that the wars, and the tumults might cease, _  
_ For the greatest of gifts is a sweet, lasting, peace. _

_May the Lord put an end to these cruel old wars, _  
_ And bring peace and contentment to all our brave Tars!_

It is technically a banned song and anyone who sings it could be immediately whipped or executed. Of course that doesn't happen though as peacekeepers don't know what goes on at sea, or at least not enough to care. I remember when I would go on trips with my dad when I was little I would join in as they sang it. You see it was popular in district 4 during the original rebellion, at least so I have heard, and was banned because it is considered "rebellious" and "treasonous" since after all, who are we to want peace?_  
_

Right you don't really care about that do you? Okay then...

As soon as we get up we make our way through the woods, looking for the river. Eventually we find it, glinting and sparkling like a precious jewel in the morning sun. We fill up on water and wash our dirty and bloody faces. Then we try to figure out how to get some food. I can see some fresh animal tracks so I know there are still some animals running around. I tell the others that I will hunt with my knife. They don't like this idea but I will not catch anything with a crowd so they go to set up some traps and we agree to meet near the big rock wall in a couple hours. I take off treading silently and after walking for 10 minutes slip into the brush of the forest. I come across a ravine and crouch behind a bush with my knife, waiting for a squirrel or rabbit to pass by. I am deadly silent as my eyes relentlessly scour over the fallen leaves. After 20 minutes of nothing I see a squirrel come into my range at last, absentmindedly scavenging through the leaves as I prepare to throw the knife. _On three 1...2..._

Then the squirrel becomes spooked and runs off. I am about to curse when I hear footsteps. It is the girls from 3 and 5.

"Aww it looks like no one set off the trap yet!" Tesla pouts, carefully looking at an area about 20 yards from where I am hiding. They don't see me yet.

"Yeah, that's too bad." mutters Ampere who looks depressed. She is probably still upset about her district partner dying yesterday. I, being just the luckiest girl in Panem, have to choose this exact moment to feel a sudden urge to sneeze and struggle mightily to not make a sound. It is unavoidable however so when I make a small muffled sound they jump and look in my direction. Taking no chances I sprint away, cursing with the shock waves of pain flowing down my body, in the opposite direction as their trap and hear them shouting and running after me but I lose them before long. I was so close to their trap! Another 20 yards and I would have been electrified to a crisp! I find myself alone before long and slow to a walk, completely pissed about not getting the squirrel. I spy some berries that I know are edible and collect some and keep walking.

All of a sudden a guy jumps out about 20 yards in front of me, staring right at me. It is the boy from 10, Zion and I wonder if he recognizes me as the one who stopped him from killing Rueben. We stare at each other for a moment and I know by the murderous glint in his eye he will not hesitate to kill me. Oh, this is just so _exactly_ what I need right now. Can you believe my luck? Speaking of luck, he no longer has the sword since you know Rueben stole it. I have my hunting knife stuffed in the sleeve of my sweatshirt so it appears I am weaponless. He curiously looks weaponless too. You can bet that I regret us not killing him right about now. I swear to god if he kills me now when we should have killed him two days ago I am going to be doing some serious shit from my grave.

"Give me your backpack" he orders rudely. Oh how nice. Terror runs through my veins at the thought of fighting him as he is strong and muscular and more than twice my size, even bigger than Gem. I don't let it show knowing it is better to act like you're not afraid.

"No" I say clearly. After all it is my lifeline and I am not about to just hand it over. He takes a stop closer and gives me an evil smile, "you have two choices, give it or I pry it off your dead body."

_Yeah well that is the only way you will get it jerk face._ Not that I have any plans to let that happen. Knife or not I know he will overpower me in hand to hand combat and I am completely alone to fight him as my allies are far away by now. It will be up to me to survive the encounter and make sure my face doesn't appear in the sky tonight. I can't exactly run away this time, well I could but I doubt I would get away with him right on my tail. It was one thing to get away from the two girls who didn't know I was there. This is quite different.

"I'd like to see you try" I say cockily ready to fight, my hand gripping the knife tightly. He snarls and leaps at me, pushing me to the ground. He is on top of me and my arms are pinned down so I can't use my knife. His hands are now pressing tightly around my throat trying to strangle me and I make these horrible choking and gasping sounds. My throat feels like it is on fire and I am desperately thrashing and flailing trying to get free. Tears are starting to come to my eyes as I can't breathe. My vision is now clouded with black spots as I start to lose strength. _No it can't end like this!_

I kick him as hard as I can in the groin and hear a rather satisfying yelp of pain. The pressure around my neck is gone but it still painfully throbs. I try to wriggle free and can't but find with relief that I can get my knife out. I slash the first part of him I can reach which happens to be his shoulder. I stab him about 5 times before darting away and quickly climbing up the nearest tree, ignoring the screaming pain. I am 40 feet up and relax sitting against the tree trunk on a large thick branch. I quickly scan the area to make sure nothing is coming for me up here. I am still breathing heavily and my hands are covered with blood as is my knife. I know some sprayed across my face as well. I can hear Zion screaming down below and see him walking by with his mangled shoulder. I start to relax now and wipe off my hands and knife on my pants.

I feel safer than I have felt in the arena so far, even though I am alone. Being up high where I doubt any tributes can reach me I only have to worry about potential mutts. I decide to just stay here for a while to make sure the coast is clear. I hope he doesn't run into any of my allies. I take out my pack and leisurely eat some of my berries and take a few sips of water. I look around contently seeing the golden sun rays shooting like lasers through the emerald leaves. I feel a distinct sense of pride at surviving that encounter and not losing any supplies. Hopefully it will get me sponsors and make people realize that even though I am not an evil murderous bitch I am still not a pushover. Nothing to see here, just another near death experience I wriggled out of. How many more will I have before I can't?

After a few long and rather boring hours I climb down and move on and start to hunt again. I follow the same routine and hide in a bush by the river. After 10 minutes a large brown rabbit comes by. Sorry little guy, but it is not your lucky day. I aim my knife and it flies into its back. It slumps over and I run over and grab it. It is still barely alive so I slit its throat trying not to think about it.

_Yeah just wait till I have to kill a person, see how well the not thinking about it works then._

I put the bloody rabbit in my pack, wipe off my knife again and start heading back to the wall as it will be dusk in a few hours.

Suddenly I hear a voice asking "Can I join your alliance?"

I look up to see a girl, the 12 year old from 10 named Calla. I remember in training this girl gave me a bad feeling, and I knew somehow it would be a mistake to trust her. Looking at her now I see a sinister glint in her eyes that makes me uneasy, despite that she looks like a small innocent little girl.

"Sorry, our alliance already is crowded" I tell her, which of course is not much of a lie at all.

"Please! I am just so scared and have no one and I feel so alone and the careers tried to kill me before!" she bursts out, fake tears forming in her eyes. I can see that she is lying through her teeth though.

"We don't have room for any more" I say firmly. I know this girl is dangerous so I am a little shocked when she just says "okay" and walks past me. I listen to her footsteps for a bit then continue walking forward. I only get a few steps away when I hear a whooshing sound and dart to the side as a knife comes flying past my right ear. If I hadn't moved it would be stuck in the back of my neck. I whip around and see the girl standing glaring at me, having obviously just tried to murder me when tricking me didn't work. Her face falls from a satisfied smirk into rage when she realizes I am not-whats the word?-oh yeah _dead_.

I narrow my eyes at her as she comes running holding a second knife and tries to stab me in the heart. Luckily instincts kick in and I easily grab her hand holding the knife and pin her against a tree. I yank the knife out of her hand and look for any other hidden weapons but there is nothing else. Adrenaline pulses through my body as I try and decide what to do. Should I kill her? I mean she is very dangerous and just tried to kill me but seriously she is 12! After my whole spiel yesterday about not murdering 12 year olds I can't just kill her without being a horrible hypocrite. I hold the knife up to her throat and snarl "Do you want to die?" I can hardly believe how nasty and lethal I sound when I say it. She immediately starts crying but I know she is trying to play me again, just how stupid does she think I am?

"Stop it you're not fooling anyone" I tell her harshly and she stops immediately and glares at me with hatred.

"You don't have the guts to kill a 12 year old, and if you do you would be the biggest hypocrite ever!" she taunts smirking. Fury bubbles through me at her words. What a snide and manipulative little bitch. On one hand I do feel an urge to just kill her and wipe that smirk off her face. but I know exactly what to do.

"I wouldn't count on that when you're throwing knives at my back" I growl at her and poke her a tiny bit with the knife. A couple beads of red appear sliding down her neck. She looks scared now, but still hostile like she knows she has been beaten.

"But your right I am not an awful career who would kill a 12 year old without blinking an eye" I snarl at her wanting to make sure she is scared enough to not mess with us, "This is your only chance, if you try and kill me or my allies again and I will kill you no matter if you are 12. I do not want to but if you insist on forcing the issue I will, it is up to you."

I press the blade against her neck one last time for good measure before roughly pushing her away. She stumbles a bit then turns to glare at me one last time. I stand glaring back and holding her knife and she has no choice but to flee. I just hope she doesn't come back and I am forced to carry out my threat because honestly even if she is murderous I don't want to kill a 12 year old. Zion almost killed me after we didn't kill him, Gem and Satin will be after us soon enough because we didn't kill them either and now a creepy 12 year old will be after us as well. God I really suck at these games huh? Maybe I need to start actually killing people. _Oh well too late now._

I make my way back to my allies who immediately chastise me for being gone so long.

"Well at least I brought dinner!" I say grinning and holding out the rabbit.

The question is how to cook it with no matches and the prospect of making a fire in the main woods is idiotic. There are still a few hours of daylight left so we make our way into a different mountain valley. This one is further off than our old one and takes a good hour plus of walking along a mountainous uphill trail to reach. In fact the trail follows the river the whole way up and is obviously the highest section of the arena. I imagine it might have some tributes along it but we don't spot any. I guess our alliance of four is rather intimidating to the other tributes, except the careers of course. When we arrive we can see immediately that this valley holds more of a forest than the first one did. In fact it is more like a forest area. We have a good view of the main woods and the other valleys, and the river running down and snaking its way across the arena. We can even see the tiny gold cornucopia, but not if there are any people by it. We follow the river and begin to hear a gentle rushing sound which I immediately recognize as a waterfall.

We eventually come to the river bank where the waterfall is. it must be 30 feet high and 15 feet across maybe. Either way it is beautiful and luscious, sparkling in the afternoon light. Large leafy almost tropical trees fill the view. It is much warmer in this part of the arena as well. We make our way closer and I can see that there is a large space in the wall behind the water, like a small cave. We climb up a trail on the side on the falls to get a better look. It is impossible at this angle but I can see from the bottom it might be possible to climb up so we head back down. We quickly skin and cut the rabbit and make a fire, knowing the mist from the waterfall will mask the smoke. Once we cook it we push all remains of the fire into the river so it won't be obvious there are tributes around.

By this point the sky is a collection of brilliant purples, casting an eerie and beautiful light on everything. I look around admiring the dazzling view; how the clouds seem to glow as they fill the night sky like a dream, the way the light dances on the surface of the river like liquid silk and how the far off mountain peaks look stunningly sinister in the purple sky. We find a few slippery rocks in the pool at the bottom of the falls that we carefully step our way across until we are behind the falls. I almost fall a couple times. It is really loud and the spray hits our faces. We climb up a series of holes in the rocks until we reach the small cave. It is dark and damp and we can still feel the light spray hitting us. All of our boots and socks are soaking wet despite our best efforts so we take them off to dry out. The whole atmosphere is very surreal.

We set up camp. The small space is just enough to spread out 2 sleeping bags so we all sit down and eat the warm rabbit. I swear it is the best thing I have ever tasted. I doubt it is because I particularly love rabbit meat; more from almost being killed so many times the last two days and not having anything but berries and nuts to eat. The warm meat is like a godsend. As we are eating I tell them about my day and encounters, "If the girl from 10 shows up do not trust her at all."

It is pretty chilly in our little cave but we are all pretty warm from sitting around the fire and having a stomach full of rabbit.

We can just make it out through the wall of water that there were no deaths today so I know the game makers will be planning something for tomorrow.

We spend the rest of the night chatting about our home districts. It is very fascinating to hear about what 7 and 12 are like. I knew that 4 was one of the richest and best districts to live in but I never really knew much about the others. Melody tells us about her large family, especially her sisters and brother and how they used play jokes on each other including the time they tricked her into doing a whole month of chores for them. Zari is the mayor's daughter in 12 so she has had a privileged life and is not the usual 12 tribute. She tells us about the area called the seam, the poorest area in Panem and how much they struggle and often starve to death. It it horrible that the government would allow such appalling conditions. Then again I remind myself this is the government forcing 24 teens to fight to the death for their entertainment, so I shouldn't expect them to have any humanity. Because they don't. At all. Mostly I am thankful for having such a blessed life so far.

Cam tells us about his dad and brother, who are all he has. His brother is a couple years older and works at the docks now but is planning to be a fisherman after he is done with school this year. Which is just absolutely unheard of in our district, I know. I am as shocked as you are. You didn't actually believe that did you? That was just my amazing and hilarious sarcasm shining through. His father owns a company that makes the fishing boats. I tell them about my family, in particularly about Sky. Like this one time last month when the two of us were fishing-well I was fishing and she was bored-and she ate the worms we were using as bait to gross me out.

"I'll take first watch" I tell them, "after all I have just been sitting in a tree all day"

This watch goes like all the others, but I feel much more paranoid due to my encounters today. Escaping near death experiences is becoming just a normal routine in my life. It is interesting how the arena puts you in a different mindset where you think of everything as a threat that wants to kill you. I guess there is not much point of keeping watch when we can't really see anything but the sheet of water that shields us. Of course it is not good for all of us to be asleep at the same time so I just sit awake on the sleeping bag watching my allies sleep. They all seem so young and innocent, without a care in the world. Like teenagers who just fell asleep after a watching a late movie. If only life was that simple. The cuts and bruises that adorn their bodies are evidence it is not.

I don't even want to wake them to keep watch later, they look so peaceful, better to just let them have their peace and be blind to the horrors of the arena they can. Cam looks like a little boy with his mouth twitching and a serious frown on his face like he is having a troublesome dream. Melody is curled up and reminds me so much of what Sky will look like when she is older with her dark hair and tiny frame. Zari looks like a sleeping princess just waiting for a prince to wake her up and live happily ever after with her golden curls and pale pretty face. I debate just staying up for their watches but decide it is not a good idea as I am too tired to stay up all night. I know they are all such good people, who never in a million years should be here fighting for their lives in this hell. It makes me sick to think of them dying, that the only way I can live is if they are all dead. I hate this, I hate these awful thoughts so much. I certainly know why so many people say not to get attached to anyone in here but I can't help it. I don't want to become like that and be so cold and calculating about it. The way so many tributes might feel bad and guilty about the 12 year olds but still leave them to fend for themselves in the name of self preservation because they are too cowardly-or smart-take your pick. I really don't know which, maybe both?

I mean I almost got killed trying to save her from Gem yesterday-most people would have just run. I guess you might expect that I regret my decision to ally with her, to protect her? Well I don't, because I know in my heart it was the right thing to do. I just keep imagining if Sky was in the games I hope to god someone would try to protect her. I know it could get me killed and stop me from trying to end the games. The question is what is the trade off? Is it better to make sure I don't die or try to save her and my other allies at all costs? I don't think I could stand to see any of them be killed if I could have done something to stop it.

After a while I switch watches with Zari and I can't help but have second thoughts and wonder if I should have just killed the girl today. What if she ends up killing me or one of my allies later? Then it would be my fault. I roll around in the sleeping bag hoping-no praying-my compassion doesn't get me or my allies killed. It really sucks; feel guilty if you kill, feel guilty if you don't. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. There is no way to win. This sucks, the games suck, the country sucks. It all sucks. It has now been over 70 years of the capital stealing the districts children and no one has done a damn thing to stop it! When is it ever going to be enough? Any rational excuse for the games as punishment for the 70 years dead rebellion has long since been irrelevant. There is no way you can justify killing kids for something that their ancestors did-that they had absolutely nothing to do with-something that happened decades before they were born. And besides that, there is something wrong with any country that sacrifices innocent children in the first place because they can't solve their differences. The president and gamemakers are cruel and sadistic cold blooded monsters, the citizens in the capital are a bunch of stuck-up brainwashed, bloodthirsty idiots and the people in the districts are nothing more than powerless and cowardly compliant slaves that just sit back and accept this fate. Sometimes I really hate people.

And other times, I really hate the world.

Maybe it would be better if we all just killed ourselves off.

There was another verse to the song that was added during the rebellion; somehow everyone seems to know the words yet nobody dares sing it anymore:

_In times of storms and great injustice, with no end in sight;_  
_An' all your hopes and prayers are not enough. _  
_For the greater good, do it you must and creep through the night, _  
_And cut off the tyrant's head!_


	22. Just the Bear Necessities

**Hey all, I am so sorry for not updating in forever! Have no fear I am not abandoning the story!**

**In fact I am coming up with some big plans for the sequel, I am very excited for it! It is a ways off though for now.  
**

**I was/am just really busy finishing my major paper and everything, but once I am done with it, updates will be very swift!  
**

**The more reviews/follows the more motivated I am! Next update should be around the 11th/12th  
**

**Just the Bear Necessities**

Day 5 in the Arena

* * *

_"Animals are reliable, many full of love, true in __their affections, predictable in their actions, grateful and loyal. _

_Difficult __standards for people to live up to."_

- Alfred A. Montapert

* * *

For some reason that I can't explain, I feel oddly at peace when I wake up.

Which is pretty weird considering we barely have any food left and are all pretty damp from the spray of the waterfall. Our socks and boots are not really any drier, if anything they are wetter than before. So we will probably catch colds or something from wet feet._ Just peachy. _I guess maybe I feel more at peace because my injuries are all starting to heal so I feel physically better than I have in days. In fact the only real pain I have is a slight ache in my chest so I feel pretty refreshed. It also helps having had some good warm meat. I am surprised nobody checked behind the falls during the night, as it seems a rather obvious place for the careers to look. Maybe I am overestimating their abilities. Oh well. It is not like I am actually complaining that they didn't find us or anything.

So it is now day 5 in the arena, and there are only eight dead so far, which is quite a slow pace for the games. I am sure the gamemakers will be planning something big today to counteract that unfortunate fact. I mean seriously, only eight young lives lost? How boring! Ugh I know it is anything but boring to me.  
The ones left are the four careers of course, and our alliance of four. The other eight are the girls from 3,5 and 6, both from 8 and 10, and then Rueben.

We are pretty cozy in our little cave here, but the prospect of getting back out is anything but. There is not much point in staying here without any food so we decide to head out and find some. We should be trying to hunt down the others by this point right? Too bad none of us want to do that and we carefully avoid that particular topic. I think our alliance has been interesting enough for the gamemakers without resorting to that though. I mean what with all of the traps, fights and avalanches we have been in, we are probably the most exciting alliance in here by far. The careers have only killed two tributes max since the bloodbath in four days, so if anyone needs some more excitement it is them. I am surprised they have not killed more yet as they must be doing a poor job as careers. Hopefully the gamemakers don't decide that the absolute perfect way to spice things up today is to have our two alliances meet. I am sure that would result in a death or two and there is no way we can avoid a confrontation with them if the gamemakers so desire it.

We put on our wet socks and boots and pack up our camp. I start climbing down the rock to the bottom of the falls. Carefully stepping from rock to rock, I am about halfway to the river bank when everything goes crazy and all hell breaks loose. In a split second the river becomes a roaring tumultuous rapids and starts overflowing on the bank. The rock I am on, which only really has room for my boots, mysteriously remains in a sort of bubble as the water violently thrashes all around it. I am stranded in the middle of the now white rapids. I look around and see my allies are all trapped like me. My goodness, another fun gamemaker trap? Haven't we earned a day off? There is no way we can swim through this, and anyway I am not in the mood to get all soaking wet. Not at all.

I immediately notice that it is now uncomfortably hot and humid out and start sweating. Maybe that is just because of the situation. But then I see something that makes this about a 100 times worse, a shark fin. Clear as day, it swims with superhuman speed towards us. What the hell is a shark doing in a river rapids? It must be a mutt. I can hear my allies shouting behind me, but can't make out what they are saying over the noise of the water. The shark is right next to me now and opens it's huge jaws only a couple of inches away in an attempt to grab my arm. I shriek a little and raise my arms high above my head. I can see the water dripping off it's rows of gleaming white teeth, each one as long and sharp as a powerful knife. I can see its black, almost human eyes, looking around with unnatural speed. It is very creepy how they seem like magnets locking on to a target with blood lust, like it is the only thing the creature can do. Which of course it is. _How on earth are we going to get out of this?_

I look around for anything that could help us escape but there is nothing. The creature now circles back around me, ready for another go. I take my knife out and manage to stab it in the eye despite almost falling off the rock in fear. It thrashes and makes a sort of snarling sound. I get a glimpse through the rapids of the next rock in front me that is quickly buried underwater again. I think I can make it though, it is a risky chance. The shark is now swimming near Cam behind me. When I see it about to leap up at him I take my chance and jump where I saw the next rock. My first thought is that this was an awful mistake. I just barely get my feet on it and almost slip off into the river. I manage to put my hands down in time to stand up. The water is up to my ankles as the rapids splash around me. My pants and arms are soaked, as is the end of my ponytail which got wet when I fell forwards. I am really chilly and cold now as I look around at the situation. Through the slight mist on the river, I can see my allies still in their places as the shark is now swimming by Zari. I look ahead trying to find the next rock but it is impossible to find. If only I still had my spear I could have used that to feel around. Suddenly I spot a really large tree branch, basically a tree trunk, come flowing down the waterfall towards us. I know this is my chance. Just my luck, it is heading right in front of where I am and I try to grab it but am too far away. _Fuck!_

No matter, it gets caught on what must be the next rock a few feet away. I leap on it and clumsily land on all fours, with my feet in the water. I quickly climb on it to a more comfortable position, ignoring the many splinters it causes. It moves fast, taking me away from my allies. It spins around in various directions and soon I am dizzy. I guess this is an improvement? I try to guide it towards the riverbank with my hands but it doesn't make much difference. I can barely see my allies now and they are suddenly out of view. Then we hit a mini waterfall patch and I cling on for dear life as it violently swirls around. I am completely soaked now. I spy the siblings from 8 on the opposite shore and they look at me strangely, confused by my predicament. Soon they are out of view too. Then luckily the tree trunk catches on a large rock, sending it flowing next to the shore and I jump off. I shake off and make sure I have everything still, which is pretty miraculous. I sprint back towards my allies, making sure to avoid being seen by the siblings who are luckily on the opposite side of the raging rapids. I get there before long to see that things have deteriorated. The rapids are worse than ever and the shark is relentlessly snapping at them. I know a lot about sharks of course, being from four. Above all else they are attracted to blood in the water. I can see Melody and Zari are still close to the cave behind the waterfall, whereas Cam is much closer to the riverbank.

"Be ready to move!" I shout to them. Then I head a ways further downstream and take out my knife. Taking a deep breath I cut my arm and hold it out over water, allowing the flow of blood to drip in. I am positive that the shark had started to head towards me while the blood was still in the air. Luckily I am safe on land and it worked, as I see Zari and Melody able to retreat back into the cave. Cam starts slowly swimming to shore, getting dragged further downstream towards us by the rapids, and I quickly drop a few more specs of crimson in when the shark starts to look bored. Cam stumbles up safely on shore, but our alliance is split up. At least they are safely in the cave behind the waterfall for now. This trap can't last too much longer can it?

"Geese!" I say as I meet up with my district partner, "what are we going to do now?"

"We might as well move and come back later" he says, shivering and still dripping wet, "I don't think it will go away while we are here"

I agree. There is no point in shouting to our allies but we get their attention and try to mime that we will come back later and they wave us off.

"I saw the pair from 8 around here, on the other side" I mention to Cam gesturing downstream as we try to decide what to do.

"Maybe we should go the other way" he says thoughtfully, looking at the area above the falls.

I don't really know what is up there but it is worth a try so we head towards it. We are both soaking wet and really should dry off somehow. Good thing I was only wearing my t shirt and my backpack is not _that_ wet. We find this set of wood steps in the trees that lead up the steep slope. When we get to the top and stand above the falls it is pretty obvious that it is the highest point in the arena as we can see everything laid out below us in a marvelous view. I can see the river leading to the waterfall is not a rapids up here, as it is below. It is now suddenly chilly and overcast and I am shivering. I put on my sweatshirt and we look around. There is not much up here, just a small strip of forest that ends in a perfectly smooth stone wall. There is no possibility of climbing it. It is completely silent up here and I can't make out any evidence of animal life. The clouds seem really close, like this is another world. As we scour the area I accidentally kick a small stick against the wall; creating a small spark and a loud bang as it comes flying back. We both stare confused. Then it becomes obvious to me.

"This must be the edge of the arena" I say looking carefully around the wall. I guess it is something to keep tributes from escaping by finding the end of the arena. I pick up the stick and see it is charred and smoking slightly. Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if a person hit that _thing_? Don't think I want to find out, except maybe by trying it out on the careers. I guess a confrontation with them might not be the worst thing at the moment. I don't know what it is, it is like solid rubberized air I guess? Whatever it is, it is impenetrable. Then an idea suddenly hits me. _This is the edge of the arena. A river is coming from it. There has got to be an opening as t__he water has to have a way through the wall! Could it possibly be a way to get out of here? _I immediately follow the river to the area where it comes through the wall. This idea would be a lot more promising if we were at the other end, where the current flows out, not in, I realize. It would be pretty impossible to swim against the current and actually get anywhere without drowning. I am disappointed my idea will come to nothing, but maybe we can find the other side later.

We move away from the rubber wall and sit on a fallen log in the woods that overlooks the view of the arena and eat the rest of our food, a small collection of berries and leftover rabbit meat. The sun is at its highest point so I am guessing it is around noon. As we head back down it starts to rain, the freaky flash downpour kind of rain. I put on my jacket, which is a lot more waterproof than the sweatshirt. It is pretty hot and humid again now and we are sweating in addition to getting wet from rain, which sure is a nice experience I'll tell ya. We head to the main woods, and as we walk I notice that tension is building between us. Not that we are fighting or anything, but the stress is causing us to become short tempered with each other so we spend much of the time in silence. I wonder what will end up breaking up our alliance, you know, assuming we all get back together first. I really hope we don't end up turning on each other. I would like to think that none of us would be that evil to betray and try to kill each other but you never know. I mean people do change in the arena, especially when it gets down to it at the end.

Whats to say that I won't become insane and go on a homicidal rampage? I wonder if I have changed already? I guess I have in a way. I am not usually very social with people my age and now I am with my allies all the time. It is weird in a way. I would like to think we are friends but "friends" and "the hunger games" don't exactly mix you know. Still I am quickly thinking of them as such and I believe or at least hope they feel the same for me. I am usually pretty quiet and just go about my business not wanting to attract attention, but since I have been in the capital I have been anything but. I am in the cross hairs of all of the careers, gamemakers and even the president himself. I am probably the most targeted tribute in here, which I assure you, was not my goal at all. I am quite surprised to have made it to day five to be honest.

And the biggest change of all is that I have turned from a quiet normal girl in district 4 into a full blown rebel. Yes I officially declare myself a rebel now. There is no way I can just accept being a toy of the capital-not while I have breath left in my body. People are so afraid to fight back and just suffer in silence and don't do a damn thing about it. They are all cowards and I won't be a coward. No matter the consequences. I have come to realize that there are things worth fighting for-worth dying for. And freedom is top of the list. If that means my death then so be it.

_Oh right it is not just my death on the line, but my families. Crap. __Guess I should rethink this...UGH I hate these infuriating choices!  
_

How can the districts be so compliant? If they realized how necessary we are to the capital-well our resources anyway-a rebellion would be easy. People should simply refuse to work and send the resources to the capital. Yeah I know it is not the best plan and a bunch of people will be slaughtered by peace keepers and we would be cut off and starved blah blah blah. Okay it is not that feasible. But still what would the capital do, shoot and bomb everyone in the districts? They can't, there would be no people left to give them food, power, fish, coal, technology, luxury items and whatever else they need. The capital would be _screwed_.

Then they would have an inkling of what the districts go through. Maybe I should just leave this be, it is not like I had a bad life after all, except the possibility of being reaped. I have never starved or had a loved one killed by the capital. I have no idea what to do, I feel pulled in so many directions. Rebel and stop the games or go home and protect my family? I guess it is not much of a choice as I have too much too lose by getting involved. It is a little late for that though I think. I am sure I could go home if I win and manage to have a nice life still and try to forget it all. Maybe I should just forget about trying to end the games and any plans of rebellion. It will only end in pain anyway, right? I think I am just trying to convince myself.

We get to main woods and once again scour it for food. It seems to be the only plan we have had here. We find that all of the squirrels, rabbits, berries and nuts seem to have mysteriously disappeared from the forest. We even find the exact place where we had found berries and nuts before but there is nothing there now. Luckily the more important water is still easily found in the river, which is calm and not rapidy here. But hunger looms over us as we have no food now. I can definitely tell I have lost weight in the arena so far. We have not been doing much besides looking for food and avoiding the other tributes so far. And getting caught in gamemaker traps and fights with careers of course. I am sure the game makers are getting frustrated with that.

We hadn't gone to the river yet, preferring to avoid it after this morning. But with no luck anywhere else we find ourselves heading for it to fill up on water and look for fish. We stock up on water and notice there are indeed fish in the water. I am pretty surprised, figuring they were trying to starve us all. Guess they left one food source left. Anyway we have no spears so we return to the woods to make some. I find a branch and quickly sharpen the end. Cam is having trouble finding any more suitable branches so I head to the river alone as he looks around for one. I walk into the river, not bothering to take off my already damp socks and boots this time. Luckily my pants, being khaki material, have dried quickly. The river does appear to be higher than last time. I spot a fish and raise my spear. As I bring it down all of the water completely disappears.

It is so shocking and unexpected that I stumble forward and my foot gets caught on a rock and I tumble to the ground on my back. God how embarrassing. What the hell happened? I get up and look around. The river is completely bare and bone dry. I notice the thick clay and rotten fish smell. I can see the fish didn't disappear and are all laying on the earth thrashing around for air. It is quite the sight. I am about to start gathering the fish when I look to see Cam watching from the woods as he just finished his spear. Then another noise gets my attention and I panic, as all four careers are heading right for me. I scramble up and start sprinting away down the dried up river, leaving my spear on the ground. They chase me, not noticing Cam. I have a good lead on them but they stay with me and start to catch up.

"We have you now, you can't escape brat!"

"Get her! hahaha Come on!"

"I can't wait to cut off her head!"

"No! She is mine! If anyone so much as touches her I will kill you on the spot!"

"Why do you get to be the one to kill her? I say whoever catches her gets to kill her!"

"I said no! She belongs to me!"

I sprint faster as they yell and fight over who gets to kill me. I decide my best chance is to get high in a tree where they can't reach me and wait it out. I cut across the river-well what used to be a river-and make my way through the woods. I grab on to a tree and start climbing. Unfortunately there were not any of those really high ones in range, so I am only like 20 feet up and the careers are all waiting below.

"Yes! Finally we got her!" declares Satin.

"Your time is over brat, there's no escape!" calls Gem.

"Prepare to die, this is going to be so much fun!" giggles Aurora.

"Want to hear the death we have planned for you? I promise it is long and painful, fitting for national TV!" taunts Fusion.

They are right about one thing, there is no escape. The trees are too far apart to jump to.

"Not particularly! I prefer surprises" I call back in a fake cheerful voice. They grumble at my response and one of them throws a spear at me but it lands in the tree trunk and I pull it out and call back, "But thanks so much for the spear guys!"

"Then come on down, we'll give you a surprise!" Aurora shouts back as another spear comes flying towards me but I easily climb to a higher branch.

"No thanks, I kinda like it up here! In fact why don't you join me" I say continuing my charade. They don't seem to think much of this idea so I smirk and say, "Oh don't tell me you can't climb a wittle tree?"

This causes Fusion to try and shoot me with an arrow but it is impossible for him to get a clear shot with all the branches in the way.

"We will light the tree on fire!" he finally shouts triumphant. This makes me panic as he starts to dig for some matches. I look through my backpack for what I have no idea; just something, _anything,_ to help me escape them. My hand finds some stray aerosol can that I hadn't noticed before. I look down noticing that I am directly above the careers. I quickly dig my knife in the can, easily opening the soft malleable metal and making a big hole right through it. I dump the pungent smelling liquid directly on their heads, making sure some gets on all of them. They had been so busy basking in my imminent fiery death that they didn't even bother to notice what I was doing and hence do anything to avoid it. Once again arrogance and ignorance will be the careers undoing. They shriek and shout and scream. Especially Satin.

"I would think twice about the fire, in case you hadn't noticed you are covered in an extremely flammable liquid, I'd stay clear of flames if I were you!" I shout.

They are absolutely furious now.

"You can't go anywhere, we will just wait here!" Fusion shouts fuming at me besting them yet again. I sigh as we come to an impasse. I wonder how long this standstill will last. I wonder what Cam is doing? Is he hiding or coming up with a plan?

The best part is the label on the can that I notice as I look down at my wet hands: _nonflammable._ Whoops.

I put the empty can and spear in my backpack, which sticks out within easy reach to grab if need be. Then I can see the careers start to slowly climb up the tree. Well Aurora does at least, and makes it to the first branch. I am just barely out of range of her knives. Suddenly a loud roar breaks the silence. It is a wild animal, and it is extremely close. The careers look around fearfully. From this height I can see a huge grizzly bear coming and finally knew just how I was going to escape the careers. It burst from the clearing heading straight at us and the careers scream and start running away. I scramble down onto a branch that the bear was about to pass under. Aurora was almost within reach to kill me so I couldn't just wait in the tree.

Knowing that this was absolutely insane and completely suicidal, I leap from the branch right onto the bears huge back.

Somehow it worked and I barely manage to cling to its slick fur as my sudden weight makes it take off running right past the careers that are completely dumbstruck and stare at me stunned. What I wouldn't give for a snapshot of their expressions! Priceless! I laugh calling back to them "bye, catch up with ya later!" I wouldn't even mind dying right now if I could just stare that image and have it forever etched in my mind. My initial fear of being thrown off was fading as I cling to the fur on its massive shoulders and the thick smell of fur and blood is overwhelming. I could feel its massive muscles pounding the ground as he runs. However the prospect of getting off safely is rather daunting. Then I happen to see my three allies staring completely speechless at the sight of me and the miracle bear. I think I will name him Teddy. Wait all three of them? How did Zari and Melody get here?

Teddy is now heading towards the large field with the cornucopia. This is the most exhilarating and terrifying thing I have ever done. I can feel the wind whipping my ponytail behind me as we fly across the field and I feel completely invincible. This is quite the show huh. I can't help but shriek with glee. We pass into the woods again a few minutes later and get to another clearing. It seems as if tributes were drawn together here as there is a bunch of them gathered. I can't make out whom though, but at least five. When they see Teddy they frantically run, and when they see me riding him they stare at me flabbergasted and I can't help but smirk. This is awesome.

The tributes are scattering and the bear chases after them. As we pass under a tree I take the opportunity to grab hold of a branch. Teddy keeps running as I clamber up to safety. I am relieved to be on firm ground, well in firm tree, now. Luckily there are no tributes near me so I relax. I see Teddy disappearing in the woods. Geese what a day! I wait for a while, until I feel safe to leave and make my way back where I saw my allies. They are quite ah hysterical when they see me, demanding to know all about what happened.

"OMG!"

"Are you okay?"

"What the hell was that?"

"You were riding a BEAR!"

"How in the world…"

I laugh as we make our way to another valley, "What can I say, I have a way with animals. In fact I think I might make Teddy my new pet"

They all laugh and Zari tells me how all of the water in the river and falls suddenly disappeared so they just walked out of the cave. It is nearly dusk by now so we quickly find a cave and set up camp. For supplies I have a damp sleeping bag, night vision glasses, hunting knife, spear, empty can, extra jacket and full water flask. I have no food or medical supplies anymore. Thank god I had filled my flask before they drained the river. Cam did as well, and Zari and Melody were able to fill theirs from the falls in the cave, so we have more than enough water at the moment. I imagine for most tributes, dehydration has suddenly become the number 1 concern. We have absolutely nothing to eat however.

Suddenly a bunch of sponsor gifts start coming. It is clear that they are all due to me riding the bear. I get a mug with the words "Priya the bear whisperer" and a picture of me riding the bear. Another one is a large t shirt with a picture of the bear saying "Long Live Teddy". Yet another one is a windup toy bear that to our horror makes loud roaring noises. I guess we could use that to scare other tributes HA!

I know that even if I die people will remember me riding the bear for a long time. I try to think of what they might say in a couple years, "Hey, remember that one girl from 4 who rode a bear in the 72nd games? How insane was that? What was her name again? I forget. It was such a shame when she died, wasn't it? Making it all the way to the final 2 before being killed by the boy from two! Oh well maybe someone will do something just as exciting this year! I really can't wait for the games to start!"

That does not exactly make me feel much better.

People did not however have the foresight to send us any food for some reason, just pointless and useless trinkets. The stupidity of the capitalites astounds me; let's send them a useless windup toy and empty mug when they are starving to death! As if reading my mind we finally get a sponsor gift with food, a nice steaming loaf of bread. We quickly slice it up and eat. I make sure to save some of my portion in my backpack. We are suddenly in pretty good spirits, considering. I change into the new over-sized shirt I got, savoring the feel of the fresh clean fabric as my original tribute shirt is now all wet, dirty, bloody and sweaty. It makes me feel so much better! I also feel kinda special having my own cool shirt. _Oh wait, it is white so I will need to camouflage it or something so it doesn't stick out like a beacon._

"Okay miss bear whisperer, what's our plan tomorrow?" Cam asks taking me out of my day dreams.

"How about we relax?" I suggest. I bet the gamemakers are laughing at me for that one, saying_ oh yeah sure you can relax! See how well that works out..._

I once again offer to take first watch so they crawl into the sleeping bags and begin to sleep. It is pretty chilly so I put on my extra jacket. I observe the new spear that I got from the careers. It is no mere tree branch with a sharpened end. This is an advanced, cutting edge capital weapon. The shaft is smooth gleaming black metal, and the deadly silver point is wicked sharp.

For the first time I really examine the beautiful knife that I have grown so attached to the last couple of days, that now feels like a comforting companion I can't be without. I know, I know I sound pretty careerish and sadistic right? I could never understand how careers are so attached to their weapons and treat them like beloved pets. I do now because I find I am acting the same way. My knife means protection, it means I still have a chance, I can defend myself and use it for other things as well. It is constantly in my hand or close by and I find myself panicking if I can't feel it. Having it means death can be pushed off. The knife is beautiful and deadly. The delicate black hilt is slightly ridged and feels like it was molded perfectly for my hand. The sleek steel of the blade shines in the moonlight; smooth and perfect and unforgivably sharp. The blade is about 6 inches long and the knife is slightly heavy and not the most suited for throwing but I can work with it, I am that good. It had a capital seal on the end of the hilt that somehow, totally not on purpose at all, ended up getting mud smeared across it covering it up.

Somehow nobody had died in all of the theatrics today, with which the game makers must have certainly been counting on a death. They must be really mad about that and will make sure someone dies tomorrow. Still it was quite the eventful day. I am surprised everyone escaped the bear attack. Aww I just knew Teddy was a good and honorable bear that wouldn't maul innocent kids, only save them! Not that I would have minded one bit if he had killed the careers but I didn't like my chances of staying on if he did. Anyway I love Teddy for saving me from the careers! Not that I would want to cross him again of course.

Wait is it normal to love a bear? I think I just might be going crazy…


End file.
